This book right here is speculative sci fi at its best and I think it's my favorite book I have read all year.

It has everything you could want in a great novel. Intrigue, mystery, romance, philosophy, religion. The plot is masterfully constructed and keeps you engaged and guessing from page one.

The premise of the book is that earth goes through some sort of cosmic event that makes the stars and moon disappear from the night sky, and the story is a slow unfolding of our cast of characters working to discover what has happened. This book is very much in the lineage of Heinlein, serving as a sort of meditation on how society, politics, and culture would react to some sort of otherworldly scenario. Every character in this book is well rounded and believable. As a reader, I felt very much like I was privy to the inner workings of the fictional organizations as well as a bystander.

What is even more striking than the amazing plotline is the unsettling philosophical questions that this book poses.

How solid and reliable is the world that we live in? What is our place in the universe? How small and insignificant are we really? What matters of space and time do we take for granted, and can that be taken away at a moment's notice? This book is beautiful and emotional.

The author illustrates the relative nature of time in a way that is starting and effective. I've never read anything like this before. If I had to compare it to any other novels I have read and loved, I would say it's a mixture of The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch and On The Beach by Neville Shute.

Pick up this book and read it and prepare to have your mind blown and your heart strings tugged.

10/10