There’s something absolutely incredible about this book. I used to not be a fan of sci-fi; I prefer character-driven books to plot-driven ones. But this is the book that got me into sci-fi: Chambers manages to juggle several characters and give them to us, fully-formed and functional, with interested, believable stories. The plot-building wasn’t invasive but was satisfying, and it was amazing to read a story partly from the perspective of non-human characters in space.
I’ll admit, part of the reason I love this book is the non-traditional relationships. We have a long-distance heterosexual relationship between a female soldier and a male, pacifist captain; a non-exclusive lesbian relationship; and, my personal favourite, an AI-human relationship – all of which are cross-species. And the beauty of all of this? None of the relationships are shown as lesser. Love is love is love is the message of this book and I am grateful to Chambers for writing it.
The negatives: it’s not a happy ending. Well, it’s not an unhappy ending either, but it’s certainly open-ended and the next book has now come out but continues the story of a minor character (as far as I’m aware – that’s next on my reading list). That being said, the ending isn’t unsatisfactory – the story itself has been told in its entirety – and that’s the only negative I can think of.
My rating: 10/10, please read, I already sent a copy to my best friend.
Words from Wales 
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