2.5⭐️ rounded up

Pervasively xenophobic and distractingly so in that way that a lot of American military thrillers are. Some sections are let down with terrible stilted info-dump style dialogue. However, the sections between Maria and Baako have a really solid emotional core, and the overall pacing and events are a credit to the genre.

Better writing and protagonists than most in its genre, but that xenophobic shit is *so uncomfortable*