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Grant Wickham has been tapped by The Committee, a secretive and powerful organization, to recruit a team of experts for a mission to establish a human colony on an Earth-like planet. With Earth’s resources rapidly depleting, Wickham selects a talented, diverse team and begins the arduous task of training and preparing for building a life and a community in space. Looming in the background of the inspiring adventure to the last frontier is a group of eco-terrorists who want to sabotage the mission which they believe will contaminate the galaxy and ruin more planets as Earth has been ruined.
Despite the futuristic vision of Edwards’ story, the characters are Earth-bound for the first half of the story, prepping for the mission and pairing off into couples. The romance allows for the team to evolve into the first families to inhabit the planet Kairos. After more than 30 years on a ship making its way to Kairos, the out-of-this-world action finally takes off near the end of the book. Following the team’s adjustment to life on a new planet with all its hardships and surprises is intriguing as Edwards immerses the families in a strange, new landscape.
Edwards’ clinical descriptions of the spaceship, living environment, and intergalactic travel keep the focus on the pragmatics of technology and research rather than the otherworldliness and beauty of space. But Edwards holds nothing back when it comes to exploring interpersonal relationships and the importance of family and community for the success of this groundbreaking exploration and colonization.