I love sci-fi novels that read more like literary fiction, and was excited dive into Spaceman of Bohemia after seeing it had been adapted for the screen (the trailer starring Carey Mulligan and Adam Sandler looks SO compelling). This novel has uncanny things in common with Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary, which I won’t say more about to spoil either book. (After some googling, I learned Spaceman was written first but if you read both - it’s abundantly clear they have no other connection and apparently this is not a new commonality in sci-fi fiction!) Suffice it to say, I love Andy Weir’s work more, and felt that Kalfar’s was just a little bit too meandering and philosophical for my liking. I could generally get into the themes, but they just didn’t pack as emotional of a punch for me as I would’ve liked, and the tone was so doleful. Even though it is originally written in English, the authors first language is Czech and I wonder if there might be something that got lost for me in between.
Overall, I’d say it was thought-provoking and completely bizarre, with some real zingers that rose above all of the other philosophical musings.

“The greatness of a nation is in its symbols, its gestures, in doing things that are unprecedented. It's why the Americans are falling behind - they built a nation on the idea of doing new things, and now they'd rather sit and pray that the world won't make them adapt too much.”