Clarke's books seem to be focused more on concepts than on plot or characters, that's why I'm quite surprised how much I enjoy his work so far. This includes a lot of interesting ideas and thoughts about space travel, life on a space station and colonies, told from the perspective of an interested and ambitious young man. It reminded me of "The long way to a small angry planet" in a way, even if it's noticeably much older and has less developed characters. Still, for such a short book, some minor characters, like Commander Doyle, had more depth than one would expect. It has few plot, it's more like a collection of things happening and ideas explored and that was actually nice for once.