Asuka was the last person chosen to join the crew for humanity’s last hope, eighty elite graduates of a competitive program who will give birth to a generation of children in deep space and one day reach a distant but livable planet. But when a bomb kills three of the crew, investigating it falls to Asuka.
I’m trying to get more into science fiction lately, and between the creative world-building and the high-stakes mystery, this book was certainly a good addition to the roster. In a near-future dystopia, the world has managed to cooperate long enough to send a group of child-bearing people into space in hopes of colonizing a distant planet, but the way that both the crew members and the general populace act toward this goal was unfortunately all too human.
I enjoyed the character of Asuka, who despite qualifying for this highly competitive program has a serious case of imposter syndrome. Over the course of the book she begins to better understand why it was she was chosen, as well as what the purpose of this whole endeavor even was. The mystery was compelling, and the resolution of the story was emotional, elegant, and resonant.
However, I did feel like the book tried to tackle too much for how long it was – between the timeline aboard the spaceship and that which took place on earth, we cover world politics, parent-child relationships, white supremacy, misogyny, and ecoterrorists, which is an awful lot to cram into world-building for a 400-page standalone novel.
Similarly we are introduced to a good number of the crew members, many of whom are not only suspected to be the bomber at some point or another but are indeed accused of it, and apart from a couple of the more prominent members they all blended together. I wish the author would have written a bigger story or cut out some of those elements, because as things stood, it was simply too convoluted to always enjoy.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.