Second paragraph of third chapter:
Again like an old god – or perhaps an old cat – she was also irascible, capricious, and possibly the least desirable companion for an extended mission. She had also, after ten years, yet to let him forget the time he once flooded her lab as a graduate student. Lucian welcomed any other company.
This was the most Clarkean of the finalists for this year’s Clarke Award. It’s set in the near future on Pluto, where a young mute girl has discovered a deep secret and cannot tell anyone. The interpersonal relationships and science are handled very deftly; there’s a real sensawunda, grand planetary setting (even Pluto is pretty big if you are the size of a small human), isolated base under threat from its own people. A first novel, believe it or not; the author is a nuclear physicist. She assured me that she had not read Imperial Earth, which was the book it reminded me of (and I have a guilty fondness for that one). Recommended, like all the finalists. You can get it here.