Right up there with some of Cawdron’s best, I was hovering between a 4 and 5 star rating until the last third of the book. The tension increases spectacularly, and the final act is so climactic and emotionally powerful that I want to go back and read the thing from the start all over again to catch the nuances. Cawdron’s first contact scenarios are all exciting, thought-provoking and almost unparalleled melds of science, philosophy and morality. This one fizzed along at a brilliant pace and is going into my enjoyed pile of treasured rereads.