I loved this audio book. Ray Porter did and excellent job with the narration, and I found myself reluctant to stop listening each evening. Teacher Ryland Grace finds himself in space in a last ditch effort to save earth. The tale blends present day with flashbacks describing how he ended up in the current situation. He's not a hero. He's just an average guy doing heroic things. My main concern was how it was going to end. I couldn't see any of the possibilities really making me happy, but even that was satisfying. ( )

So good! This is just impossible to put down.

You've read the plot elsewhere, so a few other things. I thought it was kind of funny how there's no swearing. "When the poop hits the fan", "gosh darn it", and so on. There's also a tendency to really explain the science. Combine these two and this read as an adult level Heinlein book. I re-read one of those recently and they don't hold up, but those same YA elements are here at a more advanced level.

Rocky, especially, is a compelling character. The other characters on Earth, don't have much of a backstory, but that's not a problem. So-and-so, professor $something at $university, world's foremost expert on $subject, is about as deep as it goes. It doesn't matter.

I did suspect the ending about 2/3 of the way through, though I had no idea how they'd get there or what would be the ultimate result. All I can say is it's terribly rewarding. ( )

Excellent novel well worth reading. This is a very good imagining of first contact that imagines all of the problems of communication and different ways of living. Weir writes the interspecies relationship with empathy that is weaved in amongst the thinking through problems and the edge of your seat action sequences. Very fun ride. ( )

Not my usual genre, but this book was so gripping that when my kindle battery gave out, I huddled on the floor next to the outlet to continue reading. Yeah, yeah, I skimmed parts of the explanations (the halves separating 180 degrees for the centrifuge blah blah) but the story itself was worth it all. (Yes, I'm still on vacation, but I don't think that would have made a difference!). ( )

DNF at 40%. Meanwhile, I'm off to the local library to donate the book. Hopefully, someone else will find it a good read... ( )