soft science fiction

Published three years ago, in 2022, Arkhangelsk by Elizabeth Bonesteel is a phenomenal example of soft science fiction: a speculative novel asking big questions while at the same time focusing less on science and technology than on people.

This is a moderately paced and lengthy book set—if not in the deep future, at least a few hundred years out from the present. Descendants of space travelers have established a colony on a distant and inhospitable planet, believing themselves alone in the universe with Earth in ruins behind them. But when a ship similar to the one they have arrived on appears