I'm most familiar with Reynolds 'Revelation Space' series, so I was afraid that I'd be in for more war-criminals war-criming against a cosmos so dark that black holes could be used as light sources. I was pleasantly surprised when Pushing Ice magnified Reynolds' better qualities.

The comet miner Rockhopper is the only ship in position to intercept Janus, a moon of Saturn, when it begins to accelerate out of the solar system. A mission that is at first a simple scientific flyby turns into the adventure of a lifetime. This is still Reynolds, and it isn't cheerful, but the agressively competent crew of the Rockhopper having to make difficult decisions to survive, and living with the consequences of command against a very strange universe.