Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC (heh) for this book.

While I'm not from the United States, recent political events have made me learn more than I ever wanted to know about the American Constitution and how it guides the basic rights of everyone in that country. Given this, it's quite timely that I found this book by Nikki Alexander that focuses on the idea of a constitution for a brand new planet/colony. As a thought experiment, this book is as close as you can get without going into alternative historical fiction to wonder: if the American Constitution were being written from scratch today, who should be involved in writing it, and what would they include? I appreciate that this book pulls no punches in describing that scholarly pursuit.

Dr Carrie Davenport is a divorced queer black woman and a renowned constitutional law professor who has been tasked to lead the group that will draft a constitution for the first human colony on Mars. Carrie is an interesting character because she exemplifies the damage done to a person by internalising minority exceptionalism. Carrie sits in her ivory tower of academia, preferring the drier world of constitutional law, which refers primarily to the intent and spirit of the founders of a country rather than the messier legal frameworks that are based on this initial document. Until she is suddenly thrust into her own police brutality incident, her only real experiences with racism in her professional life are a passive-aggressive colleague who believes "wokism" has gone too far and gets in his digs at her when he can. Suddenly faced with police violence, Carrie struggled with the sanitised idea of a constitution as an ideal vision that protects all under its cloak from discrimination, violence, and unjust practices, and the reality of the laws based on the constitution and their very unequal enforcement.

Adding to this are side characters that bring interesting depth to the dilemma as well, such as Carrie's three research assistants, who are fiery Gen Z folks who bring opinions about intesectionality into the mix, as well as Carrie's fellows in the committee to create the new constitution, one of whom is a racist mysogynist conservative and the other an enabling fence-sitter. Adding further to the mix of provocative opinions is Shauna, Carrie's friend with benefits, who was the cause of the major police incident, but also brings a non-academic and lower-class perspective to Carrie's sanitised world, despite being white and a sometime criminal in the past.

As always, I appreciate the nod to our times with a conservative, old-money billionaire manchild who wishes to fund the Mars expedition and establish the colony with his own company and the shadowy figures who seek enrichment for themselves and the US over humanity's interests in this new planet (and its minerals).

All of this together makes for a rich and nuanced story about a person who finally sees a way to have a lasting legacy that will help people be better than we have been in the past, but is rapidly brought back down to Earth (heh) by racism, sexism, and good old-fashioned greed. If I had to deduct some points in my final rating, it would be because the end feels a bit too neat and easy, but I can't be mad when my inner optimist is smiling hard when we conclude the tale, unrealistic as it may end up being in a real-world situation.

I would caution anyone wandering into this book expecting a hardcore sci-fi book because this has only the slightest dash of any sci-fi and is very much about social justice, being better as a society, and how we can bridge the gap from where we are now and where we want to be and what role a foundational document such as a Constitution can play in holding that line (while also not being shot down by conservative voices). I am reminded of the old days of Star Trek (The Original Series) where we have some silly buttons and screens to represent the future bu the real stars are the optimism towards the future (something we rarely see anymore, honestly) and the human efforts to get to that ideal.