First Third - Chapters 1-30

[Jason]

Discussion for the first third of the novel.

[Sam]

Seems pretty brutal to basically kidnap a bunch of people and dump them on a planet with some basic supplies and tell them to survive. It was shocking how brutal the first couple of years were, with nearly everyone killing each other, but not surprising when it seems like the ships were basically penal colonies.

I wonder what will become of Angelia and her sisters. Will we hear anything from the ones left behind or ahead, or are they basically dead?

I wasn't expecting a colonization story when I read the description of this book. I like a good colonization story, and this one seems well thought out, but doesn't seem anything like what I expected.

[Jason]

I agree the Goodreads synopsis is completely misleading. I'll paste it here:

"The very far future: The galaxy is a drifting wreck of black holes, neutron stars, and chill white dwarfs. The age of star formation is long past. Yet there is life here, feeding off the energies of the stellar remnants, and there is mind, a tremendous galaxy-spanning intelligence each of whose thoughts lasts a hundred thousand years. And this mind cradles memories of a long-gone age when a more compact universe was full of light... The 27th century: Proxima Centauri, an undistinguished red dwarf star, is the nearest star to our sun. How would it be to live on such a world?"

Besides the last sentence, what does the beginning have to do with the novel? Perhaps that part is to come, as we're still only in the 22nd century at this point.

That aside, I'm enjoying this read. It's interesting to unwillingly ship people to become the first colonists in a new solar system, as usually we imagine large colony ships full of volunteers, clear of their purpose. I also like that Baxter chose Proxima, in the closest star system to our own, to host a habitable planet with its own life forms. The way those life forms have adapted to living on the planet, with its constant sunlight and solar flares, is also fascinating.

It will be neat to see how Angelia's story intersects with that of the colonists, as well as Dexter Cole, who I presume has made it to the system already?