A Fire upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge (Tor, 2017)

★★★★☆

In the far future, humanity awakens an ancient evil. Refugees flee, crash-landing on a medieval alien world. The only survivors are two children, who are immediately kidnapped by opposing alien factions.

Over the last few years, I’ve read surprisingly little “hard” science fiction. I chalk this up to a belief I’ve held that hard sci-fi is too opaque or technical for me to connect with. As a result, I’ve collected scant empirical evidence to the contrary, and the belief has become self-fulfilling.