ARC received in exchange for an honest review.

200 years ago, six sleeper ships were sent to colonize distant planets. Now one of their message probes reached the New Earth.

A lot has changed since then. Earth has found alien allies that allow them to use portal technology to gather resources from all around the galaxy. There is only one rule. All humans have to return, no colonizing.

Now that there is proof of human colonies in space, the aliens want them all moved back to Earth or there will be consequences. The arbiter of humanity takes the task upon himself to get everyone "home" and out of this mysterious danger. He will have to overcome cultural divisions that accumulated over generations of separation. But more importantly, he will need to cooperate with the aliens that remain a mystery after 37 years of coexistence.

I really enjoyed the story and how we slowly uncover the mysteries. I enjoyed how it all came together. Maybe the ending could have been less rushed, but I found it very satisfying.

The aliens were properly alien. There was so much to learn about them. I loved how hard the communication between them and humans was. They weren't some super intelligence that right away understood us and could communicate perfectly in our language. There were blunders and miscommunication on both sides.

We have six worlds and six different scenarios. Weird planets, weird cultures. Humans that were shaped in very specific ways by their environment. And even the humans of Earth were already changed by new technologies and certain events. Here I might talk about one negative of this book. The language is a bit hard to read at times. The 'd shortenings were used everywhere. In the case of the colony person's POV, it's obviously on purpose, but maybe it's on purpose for the whole book to suggest humans in the future also talk differently from us?

We have three POVs altogether. One is a character from one of the colonies, Beth. She appears right in the prologue and shows how different life can be in a different environment. Then we have the Arbiter, Henry. I really liked his characterization. He is this likable guy that carries a lot of power on his shoulders. He needs to make some hard decisions and despite seeming always strong to the observers; we see how he is cracking under that pressure. Lastly, we have the pilot, Killian. She is very determined and quite rebellious. I enjoyed her relationship with Henry and I am glad that for once, male and female alone in space can just stay friends.

Another character that should be mentioned is Flip, a synthetic construct. He is often used as a comedic relief but also brings a lot to the conversation about what it means to be a human.

Some parts were a bit slow, but I am not sure if they could have been cut. I think it added some tension seeing characters do some repetitive stuff or having to wait before they can continue with the mission since we know there is a time limit. There is a lot to learn and understand about the new technologies and the aliens. At the beginning it left me a bit confused, but everything gets explained with time.

All in all, I really enjoyed reading this book. I rate it 4,5 but feel that it deserves to be rounded up to 5. It is definitely an impactful book that I won't forget and I will certainly read more from the author. ( )

Rec'd by Shvaugn ( )

The aliens are intriguing and the creativity and uniqueness of this book is astonishing. The three characters are well drawn and multilayered. Could have been a tad shorter, but in general this is a fantastic story with very high stakes. ( )

Earth is dead and presumably New Earth is all that is left of everyone who left the dying planet centuries ago. New Earth's allies, the Kmet, have provided the technolgy and aid they needed to thrive. Until one day the Kmet announce that The Divider is coming and that the people from Earth who are elsewhere must be relocated to New Earth immediately or everyone and everything will be destroyed.

The best part of this book was the aliens were so very alien. The Kmet and their technology are nothing like humans and our technology, and this gave the Kmet a great deal of power over the people of New Earth. The technology itself--allowing humans to leave their physical bodies on New Earth and inhabit a different, disposable body elsewhere--also kept the power dynamics at the fore and lead to some truly frightening moments of "what if the people caring for your body stop doing that?"

The worldbuilding and lore was detailed and the continuing mystery was fascinating.

Digital review copy provided through Netgalley. ( )

This is a great human interfacing with alien story, but much longer than required, and while the characters are interesting to spend time with, the developments aren't driving the story, which is more watch the educated man reach just in time solutions - in the midst of adventures where he is not in control. ( )