I am sad at the degree of meh this book produced in me. I wanted to like it - I do like starship stories and I keep hoping for more Jews in space. And I can't be all that annoyed that the Jewishness felt like a thin veneer painted over particle board, because everything in this story felt like a thin veneer painted over particle board. I just...no one felt real to me. The characters felt like puppets in the author's hand with no sense of self, the society felt like someone had thrown tallit and tefilin over a wooden dummy and expects everyone to believe it's leading davening. Also, the plot didn't seem to evolve organically from the characters in their situation, but felt like everyone was following some script handed out without bothering to act their parts.
I can see the bones of a good story here. This wasn't it.