"Do you dream of Terra Two?" You will after reading this heart-engaging multicultural science fiction YA novel. Imagine the taut enclosure of a spacefaring vessel, on a journey that should last two decades, transporting ten disparate individuals to an unexplored but potentially [hopefully] Utopian exoplanet, similar enough to Earth to be titled Terra Two. Imagine then that these are merely "first," six young adults who will not bear children, and four seasoned Space veterans, explorers of this "New Earth," or "New Eden." Imagine the tensions, aggravation, interpersonal friction: a twenty-year voyage, and you can't get out and stretch your legs, you can't simply walk away from the conflict.


From the blurb:
"Twenty-three years with no rescue possible, should something go wrong.


And something always goes wrong."

(See all my Book Reviews) - Author Temi Oh published the novel “Do You Dream of Terra-Two?” in 2019. This is her first novel.

I categorize this novel as “PG” because it contains some Mature Language and Mature Situations. The story is set in the not too distant future.

The first colony ship in on its way to an Earth-like planet. The mission is a project of the British Interplanetary Society. Onboard are 10 astronauts. Four are veterans while the other six are teenagers. Ahead of them is a 23-year trip. As you might expect the trip has potentially lethal problems that must be overcome. The story is told from the viewpoint of the teens. 

I thought that the 10 hours I spent reading this 544-page young adult science fiction novel were interesting. This is a bit of an alternate-history as the mission launch is set in 2012. This was a different take on a 'generation' ship in that it carried adults and the teens to take over. I liked the overall plot, but it was a little slow and dull at the start. I do not like the cover art for the Kindle edition. The paperback and hardcover art is much better. I give this novel a 3.4 (rounded down to a 3) out of 5.

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I received a copy of this from Netgalley and the Publisher in exchange for my open and honest review.

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What would you give if someone asked you for everything? If they asked you for your sanity, your future, your love, or the control of your destiny. Would you be able to give everything for that one incredible thing your heart is set on? Not many people would. People say that they would give everything, but they don't really mean EVERYTHING. What does everything look like? Temi Oh poses that question in Do You Dream Of Terra-Two (DYDOTT).

The story is about six (sometimes seven) teenagers: Harry, Jesse, Juno, Astrid, Aria, Eliot, and Poppy. One is a boy king who has never failed at anything. Another is an engineering genius with a broken heart. Another is one who is beautiful on camera and full of life while another is driven if broken second-string team member. Two are twin sisters who are alike as they are different. They enter a school called Dalton at the age of 13, leaping at the chance to be selected for this great adventure. Dalton is horrifically difficult. It asks everything and more of these kids. Much of the story is these kids dealing with the ramifications of psychological warfare that was Dalton. They go up to space, and now what.

"For marooned sailors, the ocean might never be the same after they'd watched it devour another crew. It could come to seem like death personified, death with a will, death with splendid, terrifying power. And so it was for Astrid that day ... Here was death, again, calling their names, and she had touched it."

Do you Dream of Terra Two, Oh's debut novel is sometimes frenetic and sometimes leisurely stroll through desire, power, and drive to succeed. Oh also takes on the subtler but no less powerful emotions of sadness, PTSD, and mortal despair. It is a lot to take in. Six(sometimes seven) teenagers give up their childhoods, adulthoods, and everything else to fly to a distant planet to colonize and help save humanity. It sounds like a romantic and courageous thing: the best and the brightest sailing off for the unknown. But truth and life are so much messier than that. They believe that they are the best and brightest, by destiny and right - until they don't. And, that is where the story gets interesting.

This is a difficult story to categorize. It is less about the journey of discovery and more about what it means to be human, what it means to be a teenager with this kind of pressure sitting on your shoulders. It is not a science fiction story, at least not in the typical sense. The characters exist in a universe where rocketry and fast-as-light-travel exist, but that is not important except as a vehicle to move the plot forward.

The six teenagers are not likable characters, but they have human, likable moments. Some are boring; some are whiny, some bitchy, and some moody, and occasionally, they can be kind, generous, and courageous. The critical point I think that Oh was trying to make was they are human and real.

She is good at writing these characters. But is this an enjoyable book? Not so much. This is a book where I can respect the craft of Oh's writing skill. I can applaud the finesse she uses to demonstrate these character's plights, and I can contemplate the dilemmas they face. But in terms of pure enjoyment and connection with the characters, it did not land well with me. Maybe that is the point of this, to be unsettled. Space is unsettling; you are thrust into a situation where death is at every turn. You give up everything, including your childhood, for the chance at something greater than yourself. That is unsettling.

If you want to read a character study, this is the story for you. Oh is a fantastic writer. I have no idea if you will enjoy it, as your mileage may vary, but you will be affected by it.

Terra-Two. A planet just like Earth. Habitable. Sustainable. A new beginning. And about to be colonized by six teenagers and six adults, who will launch into space and travel twenty-three years through deep space to reach their new home.

I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. And I did like it.

However, I felt like there were some serious issues with the book that could have been resolved with some heavy editing/pacing adjustments.

I loved all of the space stuff. The preparations to go into space, the competition, the well thought out physiological and psychological adjustments and issues of going into space, and the dangers of space travel and space exploration. This was also an alternate history (which I love) and I was super duper intrigued to see where the timeline was the same as ours and where it branched off (people in Mars! people around Europa! actual space travel past the moon!).

But.

The middle draaaaaagged on and on and on. I felt like it could have been trimmed substantially. But I also am not a huge fan of slice of life stories that are all about documenting trivial things (like Poppy's long bed stays) where I felt disconnected from characters who didn't feel fleshed out. This is also why I didn't like The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, so if you enjoyed that book, then this might be a good one to pick up as well.

And that ending.

WHAT was that ending? Did I miss the last chapter or two of the book? After reading about every bowel movement and each bedridden day and thirty hours of pilot simulation training, I wanted more of the excitement that was happening in the last ten percent. I NEED IT.

But then again, sometimes the idea of something is enough.

I guess.

Anywho, the last thing that I was not thrilled with was the lack of real fleshing out of the characters. We have six points of view, and all feel more or less pretty similar (minus Harry. Harry is just a colossal douche), and all teens have an Issue of some sort.

But that was just the Betas, who are 18-20 (classifying this as more New Adult than Young Adult IMO). There is Super Duper Pooper verrrrry little actual adult oversight from the um, ADULTS. The adults who I suppose just do their own thing in their own section of the crew and don't ever question when Really Fucked Up™️ things happen. Like, never question. Just praise on how ~good~ their kids are (until two decide to take matters into their own hands and complete the mission).

If the Betas aren't very well developed (despite a bajillion pages devoted to their woes and hopes and fears and seriously wtf Astrid), the Seniors are even less so. They are names on a page, with specific quirks and not much else.

However, despite the lack of character development, I did absolutely ADORE the amount of diversity within the crew. Yay! And the idea that space and new beginnings wasn't just for the chosen few, but an option for everybody (this was a topic that was mentioned but not explored much). I did want a little more exploration of what the diversity and the selection of teens and Seniors meant based on the later revelations in the book, but that was not forthcoming. Just an ending that felt very rushed and unfinished.

Anywho, this was a solid space book about space travel and long journeys, and that part I definitely did enjoy.

Definitely something for fans of both The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and The 100 (things I did not enjoy but also understand why others like them). This feels like a perfect mash-up of the two.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

Do You Dream of Terra-Two? by Temi Oh is a young adult science fiction fantasy. The story is set in the future at a time when the “space race” era has been renewed as all around the globe countries tested the boundaries of just how far and what could be discovered in space as it had come to be believed someday the Earth wouldn’t be habitable.

The British have discovered a planet far off that just may be able to sustain human life in Terra-Two. The journey however to actually travel to this new world is much much farther than man has gone before. It will actually take a team of astronauts twenty-three years to reach their destination at light speed while decades pass on Earth.

In order to actually have hope to make the journey and be able to begin colonization of Terra-Two the British began a whole new astronaut training program. The new recruits were all pre-teens with the intention of picking the top six of the program and teaming them with three adults. Soon the six are chosen and it seems the launch will happen as planned and they journey will begin.

Picking up Do You Dream of Terra-Two? by Temi Oh I couldn’t help but be fascinated by the concept behind the space program and where the world was at with space travel. One of the things about exploring beyond our own moon is simply the time it takes to make those distances so teenage astronauts makes sense and I was curious as to how it would play out. Now of course things don’t go as planned giving plenty of drama before and after takeoff but somehow the more that came the more I felt it slowed the story and my interest down. Not a bad story at all but one that I felt ended a bit so-so to me.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

In the mildly alternate present of Temi Oh’s debut novel Do You Dream of Terra-Two? the Earth is facing the same global climate crisis we are, but with a potential means of salvation we can’t claim as of yet—a viable plan to to repair the planet, but to escape to another. The titular Terra-Two was discovered several decades before the novel begins, and was recently discovered to be a haven for non-intelligent life. It appears perfect for human colonization.

The six young people chosen to embark on a decades-long interstellar mission to this pristine world were only 13 years old when they applied to the Off-World Colonization Project. They were a half dozen among several hundred very gifted British children chosen for enrollment in the Dalton Aerospace Academy, an intensive program founded with the sole purpose of training the astronauts, engineers, and employees of the UK Space Agency, which has already set up outposts on Mars and Europa. They were raised in an environment focused exclusively on preparing for the 23-year voyage to Terra-Two, a task more more difficult—and vital—when placed against a backdrop of an ailing Earth. Do You Dream of Terra-Two? is the meta-question of the novel, playing on the various connotations of the notion of dreaming: mirage, paradise, destination, folly.

We are first introduced to the Beta team, as these kids come to be known, in the weeks leading up to launch. To a person, they are emotionally wobbly: they’ve been under intense academic pressure throughout their school careers, but now they’re also suddenly something like celebrities, expected to glad-hand and smile for the cameras, even as the reality of what they’ve signed up for—undertaking a space voyage that will eclipse the their lived years this far—begins to sink in. They are high school seniors, of a sort at least, and they enact the social rituals of matriculation: goodbyes to friends and lovers, a final trip home to see parents who suddenly seem diminished and small, slipping responsibilities for one final moment of freedom.

When one of their number dies in ambiguous circumstances before the launch—maybe it was accidental, or maybe she jumped—their final moments on Earth seem even more like childhood’s end. The crew is reduced from six people who’ve trained together for months, to five guilt-ridden and grieving friends and a replacement who feels like an interloper. All of the hubbub of the month before launch falls away into the quiet sterility of the ship, the Earth a blue marble receding into the black. Do you Dream of Terra-Two? offers a brooding introspective take on the long tradition of the generation ship story, as the kids try to manage both their grief and the creeping claustrophobia of life on a space ship more than 8,400 days from its destination. The section set prior to the launch is rife with the concerns of a young adult novel—the anticipation and graduation—but the focus changes drastically once the group loses a member, and then leaves everything they’ve ever known behind. It’s a neat trick Oh performs, subtly changing the storytelling mode as her protagonists and their situation changes.

Though nothing much happens in their first months on the ship, the Damocles, the novel feels intensely plotted. The inner lives of the Beta team are so richly detailed, so vibrantly manifested, that the pages turn quickly. One boy begins to see visions of their lost teammate outside the port windows, begging him to let her in. Another girl glimpses Terra-Two in dreams both vivid and uncanny: there are times when she seems to know things about the planet before they are communicated by the scientists back on Earth. One voyager falls into an almost catatonic depression; another slips back into the patterns of a hidden eating disorder. The replacement for the dead teammate never quite fits in. Life on the Damocles is both rigorously boring and low-key terrifying, both because of the void outside and the conflicts within.

I’ve seen Do You Dream of Terra-Two? compared to another accounting of humanity’s diaspora—that depicted in Becky Chambers’ Wayfarer series, in which humans escaped their homeworld on ships that carried them into a wider galactic civilization. I can see why someone might connect the two: both Oh and Chambers are so humane in their exploration of humanity, even as they are unflinching in detailing our foibles within a science fictional setting. I think a stronger comparison is Molly Glass’s Dazzle of Day, which details life on a generation ship as it nears its destination. Both Oh’s and Gloss’s novels are intensely introspective and contemplative, chiefly concerned with detailing the inner lives of people in exodus from a dying earth. Certainly, Temi Oh’s first novel lingered with me for days after I finished it, reflecting on the potency of its imperfect humanity.

Do You Dream of Terra-Two? is available now.

I will say this: if you are expecting 500 pages of intense action, that isn’t what you’ll find here. It’s very character driven, which is fine by me, but a heads up. That said, there is a lot that happens during the course of the book- I didn’t find it to be only character driven, that is.

I absolutely loved reading each character’s personal journey, what led each of them to pursue this life in space. It did take me a couple chapters to get the hang of who everyone was, but it wasn’t as overwhelming as I’d assumed. Each character was so well developed that it was easy to decipher who was who. And they (as well as their motivations for leaving planet Earth behind) were so different that I found it wildly interesting. Because this book begs the question, would you leave everything behind to become a space pioneer?

I thought that the author did a great job of making daily space life seem really authentic. Because sure, everyone probably dreams of all the exciting parts, like the launch, and finally landing on their new planets and such, but most of it is really mundane. People were homesick, scared, sad, even depressed. And some people became physically ill, just as they would on Earth. It felt very realistic without being boring. And when the time came for action, wow did that deliver!

My only minor complaint is that I do wish we knew a bit more about what happened next. There is certainly room for a sequel (or seven) but I also found it sort of fitting, since this was truly a book about life in space rather than a space adventure itself. But please do note that I am here for literally any further slice of these characters’ lives that Temi Oh would like to bestow upon us.

Bottom Line: A very character driven space exploration novel that made me feel all the things for all the characters. And also if I too could ever be a space cowboy.

TWs for: sexual assault and suicide.

This book comes close to being the book I tried to write several years ago, and as such I may be reading my own weaknesses into the text. I must acknowledge that seeing something so close to my own premise--brilliant young people on their way to a distant world, covering a slice of time that couldn't begin to cover the entire journey--in published, print form was both supremely cool and also disconcerting. Oh's ability to generate story between teenagers is hands-down superior to mine; that said, this book is a hundred or perhaps even several hundred pages too long. Much of the drama feels manufactured, and the science is warped this way and that in order to make that drama possible. If you're looking for that ever-elusive and still-problematically-termed "hard" science fiction novel featuring teens, this is not likely to be the book for you.

"Do You Dream of Terra-Two" is partially an alternate history, actually, given that the teens are launching in what is really the very near future, but the book covers fictional events dating back several decades that lead up to the mission and their launch. There's a fictional British space agency, a fictional educational institution, and a whole fictional or at the very least compressed and accelerated history of human spaceflight. Certain elements certainly map with the real world, but plenty don't--and that makes sense, given that the opening events of this book (excluding flashbacks) are happening in 2012. Most of us remember what it felt like to watch the end of the Space Shuttle era around that time, and there are a lot of emotions to tap into. This book taps into them, but just isn't as concerned with preserving the science itself.

If you were a fan of the first couple of books in Kass Morgan's "The 100" series, or liked the new Netflix space drama "Another Life," I can see this being a perfect fit. (Also if you can get outside of your own head; length aside, that was my greatest challenge, and I'm likely to be the only one with my weird hang-ups.)

Now to talk about those TWs. The book opens on Earth, with the various teenagers preparing for their last weeks, then days, then hours, among family and friends. One character has been dating a fellow student of the academy from which the young astronauts were selected (she was, he wasn't). The day before launch, in the lead-up a tree-planting ceremony, the boyfriend pressures this character into sex. When she realizes she's not actually attracted to him and retracts her consent, he pushes her *real hard* to keep going. It read as straight-up sexual assault. And the language used to describe the girl's response had me coding her as asexual for about the first third of the book. As with many coded-ace characters in fiction, though, she just needs to meet the right guy at the right emotional moment to feel that sexual attraction. So perhaps she's demisexual or grey-ace; I think her character would have benefited from a bit of conscious development in regards to that conversation. My main point here is: as a queer person myself, I found her situation an *extremely* common one among queer folk, and encountering it so close to the start of the book was very ... it felt aggressive. And triggering. And as though the author forgot to unravel the long-term effects of sexual assault over the course of the book.

The other trigger warning you need to know about relates to suicide. That is, a precipitating event for much of the character development later in the book relates to a suicide among the teenagers the day before launch. And again, its placement in the book, smashed right up against the previously mentioned sexual assault, felt really tough to take. It comes without warning, and while the event itself is not described in detail when it happens, various characters witness its aftermath and spend significant chunks of the book imagining and replaying that suicide over and over again. Which, though realistic, means that there's pretty much no space space or chapter in this book where it does not come up at least once. So if you are not in a good place yourself, and this might be a trigger, know that it's going to be there start to finish, continuously.

While this book just wasn't for me, I appreciate its core impulses and the fact that Oh doesn't downplay or cheapen the achievements or emotional nuance of teen lives. That she sets the drama in space is a bonus!

From the selection process, to the intense training, and finally the mission into space, Do You Dream of Terra Two tells the story of six young astronauts and three mentors flying through space to a newly-found inhabitable planet. The infighting and the jealousies, the maturing and the deeply-affecting isolation of space. With climate change threatening, this flight of over two decades in length is a chance to set up the first refuge for a dying Earth.

Though little science is detailed in the pages of this book, the focus is on the effects of the mission on the six chosen ones. There was grueling tests to get in, the six years of schooling, and the worldwide fame. The pressure to perform in the vacuum of space is intense. Days before the launch, one girl commits suicide and a replacement rushes forward to take her place. Once in space, the self-proclaimed alpha male and his stark arrogance pushes the crew in uncomfortable directions. And the girl in charge of documenting their travels breaks down and can’t move from bed for weeks…

Is this a story that has been written before? I asked myself as I read this book… Is it quite simply an updated version of Lord of the Flies in space? Yes and no. I found the pull back from detailed science to be a breath of fresh air. The focus was on the astronauts and their older mentors. Each has a task aboard the ship and needs to be self-sufficient for the time when their teachers will die during the voyage.

The 17-18-year-olds were told with great realism. They poked and prodded each other’s egos as much as I would expect. And the romantic interests were very well drawn.

My criticism is two fold. I found it a bit unrealistic that the older members of the crew did not intervene as much as I thought they probably should or would. I also thought it suffered from being 50-100 pages too long. A few of the conflicts were drawn out and took a bit too long to come to any conclusion.

Do You Dream of Terra Two is a long-term space trip that focuses on the astronauts, the emotions and interpersonal scares of black space. Read it for high intensity conflicts in the YA genre.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Saga Press, and the author for an advanced copy for review.

Ahoy there me mateys!  I received this sci-fi eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  So here be me honest musings . . .

do you dream of terra-two? (Temi Oh)

Title: do you dream of terra-two?

Author: Temi Oh

Publisher: Saga Press

Publication Date: TODAY! (e-book) - hardcover was 3/7/19

ISBN: 978-1471171246

Source: NetGalley

I wanted to read this debut ever since I saw it described as "The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet meets The 100."  I know nothing about The 100 but sadly this book did not live up to the comparison to the Becky Chambers work.  In fact this book walks the plank!

Pros:

- The author's writing shows promise.  For a debut novel, I felt the writing style itself was decent.

- I finished it in one day.

- I really enjoyed the concept of ten astronauts going on a mission to set up a colony on an Earth-like planet.

- I enjoyed the set-up of the novel and how the author chose to countdown to the launch and beginning of the mission.

But there were a bit too many problems to make me like this book:

Cons:

- The character point-of-views were the six young teenage astronauts on the mission.  I really would have liked some of the chapters to have been from the experienced adult astronauts.

- The teenagers all seemed to have an extreme problem - an eating disorder, depression, hallucinations, etc.  I found it hard to believe that every one of them would have got through the selection process with a major illness.

- Actually, two of the adults had major problems - a terminal illness and a grief/anger problem.

- At no time was there any real oversight from the supposedly in-charge adults on the ship.
The characters were not really fleshed out and I often didn't know which character was speaking during dialogue sections because they sounded too similar in tone.  In addition the blurb claims there were four adults on board.  I just finished it and I can only remember three?  Captain, Engineer, and Medic.  Who was the fourth?  If that person existed then I mixed them in with the Engineer.

- The world-building of the shipboard life did not seem realistic or detailed enough.

- The majority of the story centered on the teens fighting with each other and odd relationship dramas.

- Once the actual countdown to the launch occurs, the plot began to disintegrate.  The middle of the story was too long and drawn out.  The 520 page story could have used substantial trimming. 

- Also the ending in particular seemed a bit ridiculous with a deus ex machina rescue and lackluster ideas of what happened to the characters.  The story really doesn't have a good resolution.  There were also a lot of mystical occurences that I didn't like involving dreams and other woo-woo.

I am sad that this book didn't meet any of me basic expectations.  I do think I could read the author's potential future books but I think I would have to read reviews of them first before committing to the time.

So lastly . . .

Thank you Saga Press!

Goodreads has this to say about the novel:

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet meets The 100 in this unforgettable debut by a brilliant new voice.

A century ago, scientists theorised that a habitable planet existed in a nearby solar system. Today, ten astronauts will leave a dying Earth to find it. Four are decorated veterans of the 20th century’s space-race. And six are teenagers, graduates of the exclusive Dalton Academy, who’ve been in training for this mission for most of their lives.

It will take the team 23 years to reach Terra-Two. Twenty-three years spent in close quarters. Twenty-three years with no one to rely on but each other. Twenty-three years with no rescue possible, should something go wrong. And something always goes wrong.

To visit the author’s website go to:

Temi Oh - Author

To buy the novel please visit:

do you dream of terra-two? - Book

To add to Goodreads go to:

Yer Ports for Plunder List

Do You Dream of Terra-Two? isn’t your typical astronaut-sent-to-deep-space kind of novel. We see the real impacts of decades-long travel on the lives and minds of young men and women who have signed their lives away for this opportunity. Starting as children, they’ve known they were going to Terra-Two, a distant Earth-like planet ripe for colonization. Besides all of the cool science fiction technology and milestones, we see how each of the characters copes with the permanent changes to their lives. It’s anything but a straightforward journey, and as conflicts arise and things become dire, they must turn to each other to make it through.

INSIDE THE LIVES OF ASTRONAUTS

I found this aspect especially fascinating. While we typically get character backstory for a few paragraphs, this novel makes it a primary focus. We see the memories of the six chosen astronauts as they reminisce on what they’ve left behind on Earth. These aren’t senior astronauts who have studied for decades, gone on multiple missions, and are finally signing up for the big one. These are kids who make an early decision and don’t fully understand what they’ve signed up for. Some take it well, others struggle significantly. The book gives you a great picture of what it’s actually like to travel for decades through space, not fully knowing what you’re heading toward. 

THE MENTAL TOLL OF A FOREVER TRIP

The novel doesn’t shy away from the isolation, loneliness, and depression that can come from endless darkness and a lack of human interaction. Before long, their ship is out of contact with Earth, with messages taking days to relay. It’s no longer possible to have conversations with the friends, family, and lovers they’ve left behind. The initial tragedy that clouds the start of their journey is especially trying for the crew. It’s hard to see them struggle, and that sense of realism adds a lot to the narrative. 

A SMART WRITING STYLE

The multi-character focus is a smart way to write this kind of sweeping science fiction adventure. We’re able to get in the past and the heads of all of these characters as they journey further and further from home. All of them have different backgrounds and those experiences are essential to understanding how they’ll cope with this new life. The narrative never gets tired as you’re continuously moved from person to person.

THE PROMISE OF HOPE

There’s a great alternate history at play throughout the novel, imagining a world that has dreamed of colonizing this mystery planet for decades. Outside of the central interactions and conflicts of the main characters, we see the world’s hopes and dreams poured out around them. Millions are watching and waiting for the stories from this new world, wishing they could go on a future journey and coping with the fact that many won’t be able to. It’s a lot of pressure for the crew but serves as a reminder of the impact space exploration has on the imaginations of the masses.

Review to be published on 8/16: http://reviewsandrobots.com/2019/08/16/do-you-dream-of-terra-two-book-review

An exciting, unusual drama of space exploration, with a group of teen astronauts as main characters. It's tense and complicated and an altogether enjoyable read. See link for full review.

Ambitious and nominally character-driven, DO YOU DREAM OF TERRA-TWO suffers from a peculiar sort of bloat, given that half of its characters still feel little more than sketches by the close of this 500+ page door-stopper. Conceptually intriguing, but in need of a heavier editorial hand. I'd be interested to read more from debut novelist Temi Oh, but DYDOTT dragged so much in the middle (which, in a book this long, can mean hundreds of pages) that I struggled to finish.

I'm a little old for this YA novel, but it's pretty good overall. More articulate and smart reviews have covered this book well already, so I'll just add my stars and give a thumbs up. 3.5 rounded up.

I really appreciate the ARC for review!!

I can't recommend this. What I thought I was getting was a good Hard-SF yarn about an interstellar expedition, but what I got was a haphazardly written psychological profile of several damaged people, the exact opposite of the type that should be picked for a journey of this type. There were brief glimpses of good writing here and there, so I'm not swearing off Temi Oh. Hopefully she can develop her next book better, but if it's a continuation of this story I'm not interested.

Do You Dream of Terra Two? tells the story of six teens, picked from the best of the best, to join an expeditionary space vessel attempting to colonize Terra-Two, an Earth-Like planet, 21 years of travel away. After the sudden death of one of the six the day before they launch, the team scrambles to cope with the loss, prepare for leaving earth and get acclimated to a sudden new face.

While the premise for this book is very interesting, it dragged a lot in the middle. The characters aren’t as fleshed out as they could be, and dark emotions are merely stated, then forgotten about. Everyone on the ship is dealing with some sort of “issue,” whether it is eating disorders, suicidal ideation, homicidal ideation, hallucinations ... but none of these characters come to life in their struggles.

Truly adored the premise, the characters, the alternate history, etc. But something just didn't vibe right with me. Maybe it the was the length, which felt a bit long, or the prose. It's definitely a "me" problem though and suggest everyone check it out!