310 pages. I enjoyed this story. Its worth buying. Oltion writes a story about how after a generation long journey , crew and colonist decide to colonize a planet. If given a choice between an Eden like planet where you might interfere with a possibly intelligent life form or a harsh planet free from intelligent life which do you chose. Does hardship promote innovation? Will living in Eden make you and your kin soft? How does religion factor into the equation? Oltion does a good job of exploring the role of religion and ethics in this decision making process. This is author worth watching.

Straight adventure and social problems setting up colonies on new planets. The colonists are given a choice between two worlds, one offers the easy life, the other doesn't.
Given the choice, how many of us would choose the easy path? The garden planet that offers no predators and an easy food supply. It's tempting. Ryan Hughes (Oltion himself, as he uses the name for some writing) and his friend Sean see the problems, and are forced to deal with the realities of the planet and the other habitable one in the system.
My only contention with the book is the treatment of religion. A rather extreme view of religion is held by Ryan: that all religion is bad. The only religious characters in the book are fundamentalists.
Had Oltion included one moderate Episcopalian on that ship, things would have played out much differently. ( )