A scifi book from the 60s, with a young black girl as protagonist, written by a white dude from the US, that isn’t terrible? And also isn’t praised and listed on all the reading lists everywhere? Reading this book was a big surprise, I have to say. This book is a take on generation ships that not only pays attention to society on the ship (which I think basically all generation ship stories set out to do), but also economics, and how the ship relates to non-ship space (and hot damn colonialism on a bicycle, it’s not pretty). The protagonist is proactive, very very flawed in a way that works with her being, y’know, a 14-year-old girl born to influential parents, but also not stupid. Granted, the story has limited depth in the end – it is a coming-of-age story, but I thought things felt very alive and well-handled. And, what’s more, the ending! Oh my, the ending. When the subject of the climax became clear, I was very afraid it’d be tacky or moralising or cheap, and it was none of that. Really glad I read this book.