For 200 years, the Safina has been traveling away from Earth, heading toward a new planet that will house the thousands of colonists encased in stasis pods. Along with all those colonists, however, are thousands of crew members, many of whom are the descendants of the colonists and spend their lives keeping the Safina heading toward its new home. However, there are several factions aboard that don't think the ship should be using such a large amount of energy to maintain the stasis pods for the people who ruined the Earth they were forced to flee from. And despite a heavily regulated and structured world aboard the ship, some crew members are determined to bring change, starting with waking up their ancestors.
Following a wide range of characters, this debut novel is a captivating and wonderfully told story of revolution, based loosely on the Arab Spring uprising of the early 2010s. The only minor quibble I had with this book is the Clockwork Orange-esque slang used by revolutionary crew members. I was listening to the book, and it took me quite a while to figure out what they were saying as they skipped around languages and euphemisms. But overall, the points of view are compelling and varied, the plot is propulsive, and the cliffhanger ending has me chomping at the bit for the next book.
