Veteran California science-fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson grounds his new novel squarely in a recognizable convention: the generation ship. In this case, it's a 26th century starship sent from Earth to find a home in some distant galaxy, as generations live and die onboard during the long journey.
"We've been rats in a cage, two thousand at a time for seven generations, and for what? For what?" asks Devi, an engineer and the putative head of the mission from Earth to the star Tau Ceti.