An extraordinary story, performed immaturely.

An extraordinary story grounded in the kind of realistic situations (given the setting) and realistic characters doing things that real people would do.

Some find the characters 'selfish'. I found them convincing. Sometimes they are selfish, sometimes they are not. Often, they are motivated by complex webs of influences and ideas. Iris can be insufferable sometimes, mostly when she is acting like her mother. Both can be loving, caring and motivated to work hard at what they believe in.

The story branches out from a coming-of-age to the grander scale of space opera. Even the ending, its complexities, the balance of 'winning' and 'losing', the dressing up of reality by the powerful to suit their ends - Earth is ruled by a dictatorship, but at times it is benevolent, at times stretching its ability to influence. This ends up with a very unique and complex political situation.

Not sure how a sequel could follow this up, but I'm confident it can.


As for the performance, Andi Ardnt is an audiobook goddess. In many ways this performance is quite bad, but her inate skill carries through anyway. There are bizzarely-long pauses at times (not sure if this is an editor's fault), there is frequent nose farts (snorts that come from dry sinuses). There are times when the tone could be less...young womanish, more serious. This is a very early Ardnt performance, it may be her first. Given that, it's fine, and the performance hits for the most part. The characters have distinct voices as well. Ardnt now specialises in romance, which may well be her best home.

But I sure would love to here her do some more sci-fi, with all the experience and immense skill she has now.

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