A slow and calming sci-fi story about first contact with aliens. For me as a Star Trek fan, who also enjoys Becky Chambers and Ursula LeGuin's work this was a really, really lovely story.
In a world ravaged by climate change but slowly rebuilding, we follow a jewish bisexual woman who is the first person to encounter Aliens on a walk with her wife and their child. As the Alien-race is matriarchal and heavily focussed on child-rearing this first contact goes well. But soon after they find themselves dragged into the decision if humanity needs to be saved from Earth, even those who may not want to leave.
The story progresses at a sometimes glacial pace, but I did enjoy that even though there were quite high stakes, there was a high focus on human survival, child rearing and spending time with friends as well as making new ones.
My favorite aspect of this book was the variety of cultures represented (two starkly different human ones, two different alien ones as well as differences in individuals of said cultures) and how they worked with or against each other. I also liked how common queerness and particularly transness was in the story, from a trans woman whose identity only came up due to issues with her hormones to a nonbinary character whose identity became a point of conflict due to the aliens rigid and binary conception of gender, to the corporate identities which were inherently fluid and purely based on presentation.
I also enjoyed the focus on puzzling out how to deal with different cultural ideas without insulting one faction or abandoning ones own beliefs. Decision-making, sustainability, power structures and power imbalances and living in a community also play a huge role in this story. I also adored that religion played a role in the story, with the main character celebrating her Jewish identity without religion being portrayed as an inherently oppressive and backwards things.
If you like your sci-fi with a focus on gender, queerness, motherhood and communicating with an alien entity as well as finding a middle ground with different cultures (both different human cultures and alien cultures) this is a great book for that. There aren't many action filled and quick-paced scenes, so if you're expecting that you might be disappointed.