The more I think about this, the more I think it’s a modern classic. It’s proper, classic scifi but with better prose work, on average. Form meeting function, every facet of the craft goes toward communicating small and large ideas in play, built into an atypical first contact story with horror elements. The characters are ideologues, but also contribute to plot beats in a more organic way than they usually do in “idea” books. They are understandable, not likeable (in the least), and transhumanism is explored in compelling ways. Each are modified in some way, with the protagonist being essentially lobotomized, the “leader” being a bio hacked drone controller, and the main sticking point for most people (from what I’ve seen), the de facto commander of their mission, being a bio engineered vampire, who is the only person who can communicate with the AI ship.

It’s also all hard scifi, so there are detailed explanations of everything, including the vampire. Personally, I really liked the details, which didn’t feel like so much it got boring, but natural and interesting. Without a doubt, the most interesting thing about the book are the large ideas married to the plot, and the staging of the ideas to the revelations at the conclusion. It prompts a lot of philosophical questions posed through a scientific lens. It’s also constantly tense, due to the nature of the aliens. It felt kind of like Event Horizon, but with less overt gore and visuals. It’s more creepy but similarly keeps things tense through the characters not being able to know, what they don’t know, about aliens, by virtue of the life form being so beyond what they prepared for.

This sits up there with other outstanding SFF like Solaris.