It felt like this was two books. The first half depicted the challenges of settlers trying to survive on an incredible world full of exotic & strange plants & animals. The descriptions were vivid & the pacing was perfect. But, somewhere past the midpoint the story changed into a good guy/bad guy political battle and got bogged down in the workings of the main character’s mind. I would have loved to hear more about Hella & less about the bad guy conspiracies. All in all, still a very good read.