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Jan 02, 2018tjdickey rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
This book is a stunning achievement. Though the plot centers around the challenges of interstellar colonization, and the technical and biological aspects of the project, the story centers around what it means to be human, and what it means to be conscious, and even what it means to love. There are human protagonists, but the complete ecosystem including plants, animals, and micro-organisms all play important roles in the human effort, including First Contact. As for the humans, "We are always ourselves, wherever we go." Even more importantly, the ship itself - all of its systems and computational power fused into an entity charged with success and with recording its own history - becomes a most central character, one whose algorithms and thoughts, and whose personality, and whose authorial voice develops far more than a human's could.