** spoiler alert ** 
 near future with factional humans, machines and various factions spread through nearby systems 
 group from Crucible world summoned to distant system where one of founding mothers believed to be and possibly a missing ship also 
 lots and lots of ideas, many well explored, others hinted at 
 separation of AI machines (mars) and humanity 
 engineered intelligent elephants - why not:) 
 watchkeeper civilisation monitoring all human settlements 
 artifacts of advanced civilisation, M-builders, and their transportation network 
 throw in a nihilistic answer to life, the universe and everything that our human protaganists struggle to adapt to. 
 weakness in development of characters made up for by breadth and depth of concepts