I received this as an ARC from netgalley in exchange for an honest review. The book comes out in April.

I've been really excited about this book since I heard about it because I liked the concept so much - the Martian by way of handmaid's tale. This was that, but not quite - or at least the elements I was expecting from that crossover weren't the ones I got. The crew scenes from the Martian yes, patriarchal politics yes. Lots of science, and afaik pretty accurate too. (I like space stuff. I try to keep on top of it.) it had an Interstellar vibe too it as well.

(Actually it was just everything I love about humans in space kind of movies but in book form.)

This is: five women go to space to steal a planet.
It is also: fraught foster-mother/daughter relationship on a spaceship.
and it's also: political commentary on climate change and US politics that is not even remotely subtle about it.

It's kind of a quiet thriller. That doesn't make sense, maybe, but it wasn't the kind of thriller that had me at the edge of my seat with my heart pounding, but that's not to say it wasn't a tense book - it just also had its quiet moments to balance out the tension. The non-linear narrative helped to both balance it out and intensify it, and I really liked that structure. It was like a slow unfolding of layers that revealed more about both Naomi and Valerie, giving you a deeper understanding of who they both are as people, and I enjoyed how that structure also allowed for a lot of mystery. Even though I'd figured it out off the bat, I didn't feel that the fact I'd worked it out diminished the mystery.

Anyway, I really enjoyed it. I came to really sympathise with Naomi and I loved how her relationships with the other characters unfolded (which is about the most non-spoilery way I can put it. I don't want to write a spoilery review right now. Maybe I'll amend it later). Valerie struck me very much like a female version of Elon Musk, which was very interesting, not least because they generated their wealth through different types of science but ultimately both spend it on Go Live In Space projects, and the gendered difference (if gendered? discuss) could be pretty interesting to get into.