This book was mostly fantastic, though it did lose me in some places. The start was a little intimidating with a big information dump. As interesting as it was, it did give me the wrong impression of the main character's age. I thought he was thirty or something. But don't let the intro scare you off; after the background, the story itself starts in such a captivating way and stays like that for a long time. The first half of the story revolves around this struggling colony of teens who escaped death and must work together in order to thrive in harsh conditions. The survivors happened to be on the low priority of professions so it was interesting to see how they tried to pitch in by applying their schooling and establish ranking. The main character was trained to be the psychologist so it added a level of interest as he analyzed everyone's behaviours. Honestly it made every single character fascinating. Then there is the struggle for power and who's worthy of obtaining it. Or stealing it. Should you obey orders or meet your own needs first? How far will you go to maintain this order? Should you worry more about the short run or long run? So many moral dilemmas are presented and I loved it. 
 ...But then things change (view spoiler)[when the group escapes. We can no longer observe the society and are limited to basic survival (hide spoiler)]. A lot of what drew me in was lost. Everything that made the story special was dropped and the new setting was kind of confusing (bordering far too close to "weird"). The main character could not showcase his psychology skills much anymore. It did eventually pick up again (view spoiler)[when the colony sends people to chase them down and all the puzzle pieces fall in place (hide spoiler)] but that huge chunk managed to drag the rating down. (view spoiler)[That, and the fact that the main character is the only gay person in the colony was not the best twist for a reader who initially picked it up because of the queer themes. (hide spoiler)] 
 So what I did like, I enjoyed very thoroughly ...but the parts in-between had me skimming. In the end, the good outweighs the bad because I look back fondly on it despite the flaws.