They Shall Have Stars

This is one of those sci-fi books where it's more about the ideas than the characters. A slim volume (I read it as part of the omnibus edition of the whole series), it deals with the development of the technologies that seem to be the baseline for the rest of the series. Honestly, I found the characters rather forgettable but as I said, the ideas are the focus here. With that being said, though, I am interested in seeing where this groundwork leads.