I appreciate having had an opportunity to read and review this book. The appeal of this particular book was not evident to me, and if I cannot file a generally positive review I prefer simply to advise the publisher to that effect and file no review at all.

I enjoyed the book. There is plenty of action and conflict. I enjoyed the twists and turns until the end.

Readable, but a bit disjointed. It feels like the section where Marcus reveals himself to Cassie is missing. They have a significant, though very odd relationship so it felt abrupt. The first chapter about Sally and Holland almost made me stop reading, they being entirely unpleasant and also boring. Sally is called Cassie at least once, which made me skeptical of the editing. It did get better and more interesting. Cassie is very likeable, as well as the other crew on Veles except Ernest and the spooks. The bad guys were completely one-dimensional with little or weak rationale provided for their motivations. The thought that two security personnel would be swapped last minute into such a tiny crew of a multiyear scientific space mission seems very unlikely. The concept of genetically optimized humans being persecuted seems plausible. The revenent AIs (humans who have uploaded their consciousness to a machine) less so, especially since technology otherwise doesn't appear anywhere near that advanced, except maybe for the deep ocean suit that allows a person to walk around the ocean bottom on Earth. The idea of a universe spanning sentience based on ice moons is interesting, as was the exploration of the ocean on Europa. It was unclear why the Chinese ships in orbit around Europa weren't doing anything when Veles arrived. All in all, an interesting, enjoyable read but some gaps make it feel unpolished.