Received as an ARC. 

I wanted a book about space. 

I got homophobia. The author praised Webb’s crusade to get gay men out of the federal government. It was praised and not confined. 

I got sexism. A married inventor pair was described by the author as Mr.XXX and his wife. Minimizing the contribution of the woman in the pair. This happened again when they were reintroduced.

I got abalism. An astronaut in the program was disqualified due to dyslexia. The entire paragraph was gross not specifically he was called “broken” and “unlucky.”

The narrative was scattered and weirdly put together and overall I wasn’t enjoying it - just reading to review. But I’m not putting my effort and time into a book that talks about people this way. 

I tried. There are plot holes. The only LGBTQIA+ rep is a tragic gay troupe. Gender diversity is non existent even amongst aliens. It is partially historical but the prince is made up? There are also a lot of conveniences to move the story along. I wanted to love this so I pushed longer then I normally would have. 

It starts off saying you can’t get offended because what I present is facts. However, research, and the presentation of research is biased (especially in social science) and without an acknowledgment and actively working on your own basis there are no “just facts.” Then he goes and presents gender as an absolute binary which contradicts biological research and says that infants recognize a car as being male but human brains haven’t evolved to recognize tv or grocery stores. Obesity is caused by our predilection for sugar and it is not good (but remember he isn’t judging just presenting facts) and while stereotypes are based on fact they are only problematic if you assign them to an entire group (ten proceeds to do exactly that). So I searched him and find so much controversy. I was not surprised. 

All but a few “greats” were male and all are white. However, the first two were eugenicists which was defined as being “too bad” and nope. I don’t need that in my life. 

Really long sentences. Overdramatic with nothing happening. I tried to keep going but finally gave myself permission to stop. It’s not my vibe - it could very well be yours.