Here are the front and back covers of the book
“The year is 2057, humanity has raised exploiting the solar system to an art form, and Bella Lind and the crew of her nuclear-powered ship the Rockhopper are the best at what they do: pushing ice.
Near the end of their current mission cycle, startling news arrives from Saturn: Janus, one of Saturn’s ice moons, has inexplicably left its natural orbit and is now heading out of the solar system at high speed.”
If you enjoy expansive world building, detailed hard science, and a story with many twists and turns you might like this. The novel is around 500 pages.
What I Liked: As velocity approaches the speed of light there is a discontinuity in time between the people traveling (like on a spaceship) and the people observing the travelers from a more or less stationary position (like on Earth). More specifically, the people on earth age more than the people traveling. The concept, which is sometimes called the Twin Paradox, is featured prominently in the story and the scientific explanations seem accurate.
What I Didn’t Like as Much: I have to agree with some critics and reviewers that the author excels at world building, but that his character development is not as keen. A key part of this story is a friendship, that turns into conflict, that further evolves into mutual respect, between two key characters. This evolution in their relationship is not handled as deeply as some readers might expect.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book:
- “But that doesn’t mean that I have to like what happened. I like having you as a friend more than I like having you as an enemy.”
- “It’s always better to try and fail than not to try.”
- “That was the universe: you could beat it once, you could float a message in a bottle across half of eternity, but the universe would always find a way to have the last laugh.”
- “The existence theorem says that it is always much easier to find a solution when you can be confident that one exists.”
- “There are certain truths, in themselves, that are as dangerous as any advanced technology.”
- “A deceitful moment of thaw between two endless winters.”