“What’s going on? I want to find out, but I don’t have much to work with. I can’t see. I can’t hear anything other than the computer. I can’t even feel. No, that’s not true. I feel something. I’m lying down. I’m on something soft. A bed.” 

Weir opens the novel with Grace’s stream of consciousness, establishing that Grace is suffering from amnesia. However, instead of panicking, Grace immediately begins to evaluate his surroundings and ground himself in observable fact. Grace, to his core, is a true scientist.

“Look, I was in a bad place when I wrote that, okay? I’d had enough of the research world and that was sort of a ‘kiss-my-butt’ goodbye. I’m much happier now as a teacher.”

Confronted by Stratt in his junior high school classroom, Grace disavows his former life as a scientist. His rejection is equally false and truthful, however. He remains passionate about scientific research but feels insecure about participating in a field that rejected him and embarrassed by the immature tone of his controversial paper. Still, Grace legitimately loves teaching, and this moment foreshadows the happiness he attains as a teacher on Erid, even when he has the option to return to Earth.

“As serious as Yáo was, Ilyukhina was casual. They butted heads from time to time, but even Yáo couldn’t resist her charms. I remember when he finally broke down and laughed at one of her jokes. You can’t be a hundred percent serious forever.” 

As he prepares to give his deceased crewmates a space burial, Grace is flooded with memories of their personalities. Grace’s depth of feeling for his would-be companions emphasizes the importance of friendship to survival and highlights how lonely Grace feels at the beginning of the novel. Grace’s appreciation of Ilyukhina’s sense of humor also helps to develop Grace’s own use of humor as a way of connecting more closely with