A blend of hard science fiction, philosophy, and ethics that can be read as either hopepunk or horror — much like the great classic science fiction stories. 

Chambers is one of my favorite authors, but this is probably my least favorite of their writings. It has the well-written, quietly thoughtful characters and situations that I love, but there's also some sort of vaguely melancholy and threatening personal academic association with it that kept me from really connecting. Obviously, authors can't account for a reader's vague, personal associations, so that's entirely on me.