If you pick this book up on my recommendation you might end up hating me for it, but I'm going to recommend it anyway. But you have been warned. I'll try to keep this spoiler free, but it's a rather hard sci-fi story looking into such difficult subjects as consciousness, sentience, self, and creating aliens that aren't just Homo sap. in funny make-up, and it was a bit difficult to get into. It's slow, lots of back story and indirect world building, and although I accept them looking back, there are still important bricks in that edifice I just dislike a lot.

There were times I didn't want to put this book down, times I thought it was stupid, times I thought it was brilliant, and times I wanted to throw it against the wall, which would have been stupid since I was reading it as an e-book. I won't tell you in what order those occurred, so as to not spoil your experience, but know that it's not a book for everyone, and that it might infuriate you even if it is a book for you.

[Metaphor building on the phrase "hard sci-fi" deleted]. Read it if you're able to.