I thought this book was good, it took a couple of chapters to get into, but when I did finally get into it, I couldn't put it down!
First contact novel . . . sorta . . .
When humans first set out to explore the universe, they found a number of planets suitable for terraforming. So terraform these several planets they did, nearly bankrupting Earth. But then, with Earth's hopeful colonists moving up to the way station space habitats 'till they were near bursting at the seams, terrible news came back from the outworlds.
Something had gone wrong with the terraforming process, and instead of bright, new planets ready for Earthmen to move in, all these new planets hosted something (nobody knew what) that killed humans the minute they landed and set foot outside the colony ships.
Lest this enigmatic killer (nicknamed the Quill) should come back to devastate Earth itself, no one who'd been out in space was allowed back to the solar system---leaving millions of hopeful colonists with no place to go---stuck between killer planets, Earth refusing to let them go home and the space stations increasingly unable to feed them.
Not my favorite by her but still good.