I'm about half way through, but tapping in on the first 25%: 7.75

which almost perfectly lines up with the first year after the moon explodes: the plot reads like the first half of The Dark Forest, but less fun impending-doomy. More similar to the matter-of-fact engineer talk like Fountains of Paradise. This would be meh IMO, if the book didn't start to ramp in the 2nd third, which it does!

I enjoy the characters, though numerous, who gain distinct personalities without much effort in Nealson's world.

Don't love Nealson's explanation of OTPs or lack thereof, especially considering that I know Nealson knows better per Cryptonomicon. Also doesn't make any sense that Dubois would write a python script to help decipher the OTP, since that would imply that he manually transcribed the entire OTP by hand?? which is not faster than deciphering it by hand. SMh my head. Only technical inconsistency that's irked me so far, the rest of it has been physics too far over my head to vibe check. Good hard-sci-fi

Part 2 (9/10) is a very fun combination of space adventure, survival, and politics. All three subplots which unfold in part two are equally engaging, so it's a page turner.

I particularly like the development whereby the intangible villain of space existentialism is perturbed by the very tangible villain of Julia, who goes around causing social agitation – as if there wasn't already enough fucking problems aboard the swarm.

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