June's gift for mechanical invention has earned her a coveted post as an engineer on a space station after six years of training. There she is haunted by the mystery of Inquiry, a revolutionary spacecraft powered by her beloved late uncle's fuel cells that went missing when June was twelve years old. While the rest of the world has forgotten them, June alone has evidence that makes her believe the crew is still alive.
... [a] brilliantly imagined novel ... gorgeous, haunting ... Deeply enthralling and fiercely feminist...yet another success from Kate Hope Day ... this stunning exploration of the potential of humans and their inventions will challenge everything you thought you knew about good science fiction.
June’s path to the stars, as well as the science behind the trip, feels both realistic and accessible. Day’s descriptions of the cold lethality of space make the final frontier feel like a character itself, and, indeed, each location described feels tangible. The action sequences are brutal and breathtaking, but the novel focuses most on June’s emotions and relationships with her fellow trainees and astronauts. Perfect for fans of realistic depictions of space travel like Andy Weir’s The Martian (2014) and Jeremy K. Brown’s Zero Limit (2018).
In this readable debut, Day captures the difficulties of both being and raising a gifted child, while incorporating details about space flight, training, and problem solving that make the story come alive without being overwhelming. Recommended for most fiction readers.
