Losers in Space

I would give this 4 and a half. It is truly a great book. Losers is a survival story, a space story, and a social commentary all rolled into one. What really drove me to dive into Losers was Susan (who is pretty kick ass-even if she starts off very fake) and the excellent story telling. I read all of the notes for the interested even when they were a little over my head.
My only gripe, and this is very small, is the lack of emotion of the characters. Except for an early freak out, and a touch of homesickness later, the characters adapt to this very well.
I did appreciate the lack of romance as well-the story just did not need it. Barnes handled character relations in the same way he explained math formulas and I thought it worked. Of course, I adored Fwuffy.
I highly recommend this book and will sell it to my library kids. I think they may be put off by the size of the book and the very mature writing style. I believe I know more adults who would enjoy this. That said, the title of the book will help. People chuckled when they saw me carrying this around.
I also loved the very short essay (note?) in the beginning about hard sci fi vs soft sci fi. This may be a first book in the genre for many readers.