Firstly I cant recommend this book as the final book in the trilogy is so expensive/hard to find. However if you happen to find a copy of all three then this isn't a bad yarn. Centauri Dawn is the backstory and novelization to Alpha Centauri the video game by Firaxis (Brian Reynolds, Sid Meier). Ely himself worked on both the game and its expansion. All in all a great book to fill in the details.