Search - The Dazzle of Day

Dreadfully tedious plot; I slogged through it only for the incredibly lyrical writing style. Depressing subject, gorgeous writing. I breeze through most novels in a couple of days; this one took me a month and a half.

This is a quiet, contemplative book.

In the prologue, an old woman - a Quaker living in Latin America - struggles with her decision to join the Quakers' generation ship. The main portion of the book takes place generations later, when the ship has reached the planet it was aiming for. The narrative alternates between members of one of the families on board as the community struggles to decide whether to settle on the planet or to keep going. Life on the ship is cozy, with a warm climate and small farms, while the planet's climate is cold and harsh, but the ship's systems are slowly degrading. The debate is putting a great strain on the community and everyone's relationships, but staying confined on the ship for generations more may not be psychologically feasible, no matter how cozy it is.