Saturn Run

This book was peculiar in that I started out not particularly interested in it, then quickly came to enjoy it, then lost some interest again near the end, then came back to a happy medium by the conclusion (and afterword).

If you do not enjoy hard, technical sci-fi, throw this book as far away from you as you are able. Don't even try it unless your love of political intrigue is more than enough to alleviate your inevitable boredom. As the afterword makes clear, this is simply a book about exploring reality-based near-future science through the lens of science-fiction. For a reasonably realistic but far more fictional sci-fi, I would recommend The Expanse series instead.

I would also recommend playing Kerbal Space Program as a primer on orbital mechanics, rocket propulsion, and the sheer magnitude of difficulty of both (just to appreciate the science behind it).