This book is way outside my usually reading zone. First contact, alien invasion. Not my cuppa.

In spite of that, the story drew me in. Vers and her father Matteo kept me turning pages. The world building seemed authentic. The basic conceit surrounding microplastics, panspermia, and the origins of life in out solar system made for some uncomfortably realistic reading.

Like, is this really fiction? Some pieces of it felt way too much like thinly veiled science that couldn't find its way to publication.

I can't say as I cared for the images scattered through the story. I found them distracting, off-putting. They bounced me out of the story every time one of them appeared on the page. Eventually I learned to ignore them - as if they were Really Big scene break markers - and was able to read around them.

Recommended.

The story offers a unique perspective on interstellar travel and what it means to be human.