I was thrilled when I saw my wish was granted by the publisher to get an arc of this book. Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for granting me an egalley to read and review. All thoughts and opinions are my own, and they are built off an advanced copy of the novel, meaning some things might change before release.

I'm not new to Andy Weir's novels and style of sci-fi, having read The Martian, so I was excited to jump into some more 'scientific' sci-fi. Weir did not disappoint on this aspect, and honestly I was glad I recently took a physics course because otherwise a lot of this would've gone right over my head. I felt smart reading this, and I kind of enjoyed the feeling this book gave me. I mean I obviously can't guarantee every piece of science used in this book is 100% accurate, but this book still contains a level of detail that not all do, and while it feels like you have to stretch your brain around some of the content, I enjoyed that aspect of the story. It does make parts of the story feel slow moving, but it causes you to focus on the small discoveries as a reader, like Grace does in the story.

My favorite part of this book is what sets it apart from The Martian. In the latter, the main character is largely isolated, with only blips of contact with Earth. While Grace is still isolated from Earth, a secondary character does come in about halfway into the story, and the interactions between Grace and this character made the story so much more enjoyable for me. There was just something in the excitement that ran through most of their discussions, and their strong desires to save their home worlds, that was the final touch on this story for me. It would've been interesting without this character, but nowhere near as enjoyable.

However, there were two things I really didn't like about the story, and what hurt an otherwise 5 star read. I really didn't like the big 'twist' that the past and present storytelling was leading up to (though I did like the way this type of storytelling was otherwise utilized), as I felt like it undermined the character too much. Grace no longer feel genuine but instead hypocritical. It also just didn't seem to fully match the characters motivations in both the past and the present, and just overall frustrated me. I also didn't care for the ending, as it felt way under-planned and under-explained vs. the rest of the over-explained book. It was a jarring change and it in turn made it feel miraculous compared to the rest of the book. There were also just some odd statements and quirks that, while trying to explain the possibility of the ending, I really could've done without. Honestly, I felt the book would've been stronger if it ended without the epilogue/final chapter.

Overall though, I really enjoyed my time with this book, even if the final chapters frustrated me a bit. I still can't wait to see what Weir writes next, and still need to read his sophomore novel too!