I bought this book to see if it lived up to the cover hype: "The logical heir to Isaac Asimov and Arthur C Clarke". Sadly not I'm afraid. Heinlein in his "Space Family Stone" phase perhaps would be closer. Plenty of pace, but the characters hardly get past 1 dimensional and would be ideal if they existed in a comic book. Lack of proper characters would be OK if the science was solid, but the main "event" has so many holes it is frankly unbelievable on several counts. I'll avoid spoilers, but come on, (50/9000) years * 0.5 lightyears is next to nowhere. It was right on top of them, and in the ecliptic too.
The real killer for me though is the sociology. Why, in 10,000 years time and with hundreds of settled worlds, would anyone remember Winston Churchill ? English has supposedly been forgotten but the "Queen Charlottes" are remembered? The oldest coin comes from 2006: why not dig up any Roman site you'd care to mention ? None of the little details make any sense when questioned.
Unintentionally hilarious in places though. The Hap scene: how cliched is that bit ? Later, an identical persona (with a different name of course) with a laser. Kept me thinking of the Rocky Horror scene when Riff Raff appears as the commander and shoots Frank for some reason. "That's a laser".
This is weak science and poor fiction. Ideal if you are on a long flight and the only alternative is Dan Brown, but otherwise perhaps trying some proper science fiction would be an idea.
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