I've loved every Becky Chambers book so far and this was no exception! Four astronauts, Ariadne O'Neill, Elena Quesada-Cruz, Jack Vo and Chikondi Daka, make up the crew of the OCA spacecraft Merian. When the story opens they have just woken up from 28 years in suspended animation, and are excited to step out onto the first of four planets they have traveled to survey. They are interested in everything to do with these alien worlds, all of which contain some kind of flora or fauna. Each world presents a unique challenge, but also a fresh place for the quartet to learn more about the universe and also themselves. They are so caught up in their research it takes them a long time to realize their regular dispatches from Earth have stopped... The audiobook is only 4.5 hours and I listened to it all in one day. Chambers, a queer author, is very good at gently folding in different queer identities into a story without making the story about the character's sexualities or gender identities. This space crew is 100% queer, with an ace character, a trans character and poly relationship. If I had one request, actually, it would have been to see just a little bit more of that side of things. But as a novella, this piece is very satisfying.