Orbit of Strangers (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781934232767)

Meet Bcqu-a highly specialized research team tasked with exploring and documenting the ecosystems of hazardous planets. Coordinating dangerous interstellar missions is easy when you share one mind, one purpose, and one identity. Because Bcqu isn't a group-it's a single consciousness, perfectly synchronized across multiple bodies.

Until something goes wrong.

During what was supposed to be a routine mission on the seemingly unremarkable planet GU-T64A, one fragment of Bcqu-known as Speaker-is separated from the collective in a catastrophic error. Flung 10,000 lightyears from civilization, Speaker is left alone, isolated, and disoriented, functioning as just a fragment of the entity he once was.

His only companion? The engineer whose mistake caused his exile. And her plan? Steal a ship and find a way home.

But the alien civilization they stumble upon is unlike anything Bcqu has ever encountered. For the first time, Speaker begins to experience true individuality, to form bonds not rooted in perfect mental symmetry-but in emotional resonance, in mutual understanding with others entirely unlike himself.

Torn between the familiarity of his former self and the strange beauty of connection with truly other minds, Speaker faces an impossible question:

Is returning to who you were... worth losing who you've become?

A mind-bending, emotionally rich sci-fi adventure about identity, autonomy, and what it really means to belong, this book is perfect for fans of Becky Chambers, Ann Leckie, and The Left Hand of Darkness.