Stock sci-fi with some nice additions. A decent read but nothing outstanding. The characters are mostly well fleshed out with a few exceptions. Egad is a nice surprise which I did not meet in a lot of books, so plus points for that.
The two things that do bother me are: 1.) The conflict quickly degenerates into the usual us vs aliens stock story, even though there was a lot of potential in the beginning. 2.) Several actions are paced extremely quickly as if the author wanted to remain under a certain page count. This leaves a feeling of "unfinished" in a few ways.
There is potential there... but perhaps not enough to make me immediately search for the next book in series.
Interesting story. A bit similar to others I've read, but still a decent tale all by itself. If you're a scifi fan, and you like alien stories, this one will probably suit you. If you like exploration of other solar systems as much as I do, then you'll enjoy this one as well.