I loved the direction this one took over the second one, which I didn’t care for. We follow characters in the human fleet, off the back of a tragedy that forces the fleet to get outside help. Learning about every aspect of life (and death), through young and old characters, and simply see how the shake up of the event alters their lives.

It’s a quiet story. Chambers is interested in the minutia of lives being lived in science fiction, not the bombastic space opera conflicts the market is used to. Her interest bleeds through into the fiction and is an effective motivator. The first book was more novel, I think, as generation ships are not new—but her exploration of the average lives being protagonists is clearly a niche of very few. And that makes her story telling feel fresh and compelling. It’s also clear her writing is improved from the first book, and I think this book is well executed because it takes what worked from the first two books, so clearly she’s continuing to evolve. I was almost done with the series with the second book, but I already owned this and thought I’d continue on. Glad I did! Would read the next one too, after this positive experience.