It was difficult to not find myself comparing this to The Expanse, given just how much I enjoyed that staggering 9 book series. Sadly I didn't find this lived up to my expectations. I appreciated the imagination that clearly went into it, but I didn't find myself connecting with any of the characters in the same way that I did in The Expanse.

In theory this book starts out with a much much bigger scope than The Expanse but strangely feels much narrower and small. You don't really get the same sense of space or the worlds involved or the technologies.

I'm hopeful that it turns around and proves me very wrong in the subsequent books, and I think if I had read this without ever reading The Expanse I probably wouldn't be so critical. I did enjoy it, just not in the way I'd hoped to.