Two migrant girls team up against corruption and conspiracy to prove their innocence--and worth to science--in this gripping enemies-to-lovers space academia murder mystery.
Teenage academic rivals Ver Yun and Aryl Fielding find their laboratory supervisor dead and become suspects in his murder. Now, Aryl's parents are under house arrest without pay, and Ver no longer has help to find a cure for RCD, her painful degenerative disease. The girls, both offworlders on G-Moon One, realize their common battle ("People like us, who are different--we represent everyone who shares our blood") and work together to avoid a computer-run trial biased against their moons. Both know "the astronomical escape velocity needed to break free" of such prejudice and must risk their lives so they can live at all.
Karen Bao (The Dove Chronicles series) sets Pangu's Shadow in a distant star system in the far future, yet intertwines contemporary issues of unchecked capitalism and rampant inequality. For example, a corrupt system better maintains G-Moon One than Two and Three, and good marketing ensures an overpriced drug's profitability despite its ineffectiveness. Alternating chapters reveal the girls' awareness of this abuse; Aryl hates the "oh, how they wish they could do something to help" attitude of One-ers, while Ver says "people clucking over me makes me feel even more self-conscious about being disabled." Detective hijinks abound, including last-ditch offworld trips, and a morgue heist to find a prosthetic hand. A slow-burn queer romance and stellar worldbuilding round out this sci-fi about queer girls flipping the script. --Samantha Zaboski, freelance editor and reviewer