PositiveThe Adroit Journal\"Although the premise promises high-speed adventure and high-concept science fiction, Chess’s writing delivers a more intimate and nuanced exploration than a reader might expect. This is a real strength of the novel; instead of entertaining readers with predictably emotional scenes of loss or end-of-the-world antics, Chess explores the quietness of grief and the slow drudge of trying and failing to adapt to a new world. Though the writing is often clean and efficient, Chess has an uncanny ability of knowing when to slow down and deliver memorable, cutting, and poetic lines ... Chess shows us the quiet and impossible grief of being trapped in an alien world.\
