I hope it makes sense when I say that this book does an amazing job portraying the message it wants to send, and yet it was still a story that took me by surprise.

This book is addicting. Its fast paced, the formatting is fun, and it leaves just enough mystery to keep readers on their toes/unable to guess what specifically will happen next. It's that branch of science fiction that is just realistic enough that when I put the book down it took me a minute to come back to reality. It's a story that has readers questioning their basic understanding of science, politics and humanity.

This story is told in interview format, which annoyed me a bit at first, but I think that as I adjusted to it, it helped keep it flowing. The parts I found boring were quickly wrapped up as we jumped to a different interview and the parts I didn't understand as well (some of the science parts) were explained so that the other person in the conversation could understand them-I think this was a huge benefit to readers.

The characters are amazing. They are all so passionate about their work, reading about them making discoveries and their relationships with one another was so pleasant. Unfortunately as more and more characters were introduced into the story there were times I had to check back at the beginning of the chapter to see who it was about (and sometimes then I was still a bit lost). I'm about to contradict myself when I say that despite that it was easy to follow, readers just have to pay attention to details. A majority of the interviews are from the same people, but some chapters appear to be about people who appear to be insignificant...and they are, but what they talk about relates to the main characters. This is definitely a book where content plays a heavier roll than characters. *shrugs*
The content here is incredible. Technology is found on the Earth that is way beyond current advancements, and no one can explain what it is or how it got there. It leaves the characters and the readers questioning (basically) everything. Characters are trying to find answers as to what it is that they discovered, how it works, who put it there, how and WHY. The story suggests that there is so much more in the universe than we have previously believed, its very humbling.

Despite the awesome characters and awesome content there were a few things I found to be a bit problematic. Nothing that makes me want to stop here, but I think that this book reads very clearly as a part of a series. There was a lot of information dumped beyond the halfway point (including mythological and political components) that felt a bit out of place. They were completely necessary for the book, and definitely important for what is next to come, but I just felt like they were kinda sprung up on me out of nowhere? I think if the author wanted to introduce these aspects it would have been better to just wait until book 2, rather than put so much new info in the second half of the book before he was even guaranteed a sequel. (Although I suppose now there is no way for me to not pick up the second book, so at least there's that).
There is also a lot of mentioning in this book that the things they are finding could be from aliens, and yet this book doesn't suggest that this is actually the case. A lot of the focus is on the political repercussions of finding what they did - which is fair, but it just left me wanting more. Hoping to see some more development on this in book 2, and maybe step away from the political aspects. But I definitely believe that is more of a personal preference!

Overall I found this book enjoyable, and would recommend it to anyone who is into science fiction. I'm definitely looking forward to see what is next for this series.