In Ascension is the third novel by Scottish author Martin MacInnes.

Longlisted for The Booker Prize 2023, it was also recently announced as the winner of the most recent Arthur C Clarke Award for Best SF Novel of 2023.  So it has mainstream literary credibility as well as serious genre credibility (I guess that's why it wasn't going to make the Hugo finalists list - note to self to check if it was even nominated to begin with).

I thoroughly enjoyed it and would rank it as amongst the best genre fiction novels I have so far read this year. I really don't want to describe too many specifics of the plot because of the potential for major spoilage.

I found it a compelling slow-burn engaging read. Not so much a page-turner driven by non-stop action, because it isn't that.  Rather it's a book that slowly seduces you into the thought that its central conceit and concept is obvious and your own idea and you think you see the shape of where it's going. And you may be right to a degree, but you're probably also very wrong as the ideas unfold and you see the widening implications arising from them.

I've already mentioned in the other thread how early on it reminded me of multiple authors - Cynan Jones for the beautifully evocative writing in the opening parts, William Gibson for the near-future next week type settings, and KSR for the climate change affected backgrounds as the action moved around.

Later as events progressed, I was reminded of many more specific books and authors, most of which were obvious in context.  But, my brain being what it is, there were a couple of extreme outliers.  I'll give you one to ponder - Graham Joyce's Smoking Poppy.  Why that book?

Anyway, I'm happy to discuss further but be warned it may get spoilery.

And, btw, I'll be reading MacInnes' other books sooner rather than later.