"One miner commented it was likely the first time straw had ever been used to make a roof in all of human history."

I absolutely loved this. The idea of humans living underground until they forgot their origins was really inventive, as was the twist at the end. I really liked the characters, they were relatable and interesting and the world building was great. I want to rave about specific plot points but that would be spoilers, unfortunately. I am relatively new to sci-fi so I can't compare much with other stories, but I recommend it. I hope we get to spend more time with the characters in another book, as while the story is complete in that it doesn't end on a cliffhanger as such, there is room for more.

I will definitely seek out more from this author. This is his debut published novel but according to his website he has written other books and if they are published I will definitely try them.

Thank you so much to the author, publishers, and Netgalley for kindly providing me with an advance copy. I can't say enough about how much I enjoyed myself. My review is completely voluntary and all opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed reading this, it had that element that I was looking for and thought worked as a great scifi concept. P. A. Kramer has a strong writing style and was a great debut from them. I was invested in what happened and am excited for more from the author. Everything worked well in the world and that the characters were everything that I wanted from this type of book.

5 stars and I cannot mean that more.

This book has everything I want in science fiction. It is hard sci-fi in the best way possible: the science is completely real, interesting, and never made me suspend my disbelief, but the characters and story get just as much attention and are even more compelling. There is growth, humor, strong female characters, reflection, even a little romance…it’s pretty rare for a book to hit all the marks.

My favorite part is all the random quirks thrown in that make the world feel extra realistic. For example, it’s considered rude to wear your helmet in someone’s house because it implies you don’t trust the integrity of their roof. A lot of their metaphors also relate to quail (including a quail they named Canary lol) because that’s their only livestock. Every time, I giggled and was like “duh, of course that’s how they would think!”

I also loved that the reader gets to appreciate the dramatic irony of knowing more than the characters (e.g. “One miner commented it was likely the first time straw had ever been used to make a roof in all of human history.”) yet still be in suspense alongside them.

There are several detailed chemistry & geology explanations—which I personally, as a massive nerd, couldn’t adore more—but if you hate chemistry with a burning passion for some reason, this book may not be for you. However, if you ever got even a little excited during science class, then I can’t recommend this enough!