Really enjoyed this. The pacing felt creepy and foreboding like I was waiting for something to happen for all 500+ pages. I think Peter, Bea, Grainger and the Oasans were all well-developed characters and felt true and knowable. This was on a list at Powell's as a must read for the 21st c. & I think they called it a romance. I can see why but I'm glad it wasn't simply a romance. Like the characters, the storyline was faceted. It also felt cinematic in that I could see the story and feel it would translate well to a movie. The Jesus metaphor was a little heavy-handed but I hadn't thought of the concept of placebo until the book suggested it. I could write an essay on the idea of placebo in this book with reference to pharmaceuticals given to the aliens, religion, and what can substitute for love (his borderline relationship with Grainger and his letters to his wife).

Spoiler/musing on the ending: /
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There were some things I didn't get:
I don't know what to make of the Targliatone encounter nor the abandoned tent in the landscape from the other pastor. Was it a fever dream? Didn't Grainger see it too? I think it wasn't Bea contacting him at the end but just the censors trying to keep him at Oasis. Despite the USIC crew harping on how replaceable they all were, the screening process and the price of food suggests otherwise and perhaps USIC wasn't willing to let him go. Maybe him and Grainger were going home but maybe they were going to wake up back on Oasis (perhaps Grainger had already been through that process once how she emphasized the smell of her dad like her identity had been blurred and she was trying to retain some part of the her from Earth). Which begs the q: Was it ever Bea on the other side of the Shoot? It reminded me of the Black Mirror episode where someone no longer living could be deposited via AI and social media into a device for comfort.