I like Elizabeth Bear, but I have to be in the right mood to read her as I find her novels a bit on the angsty side.

I must have been in the right mood because I enjoyed Dust. There was some really cool "idea" moments in the generation ship world she's created (lazer cutting tool evolving into a basilisk, for example) as well as her patented "difficult love between two characters" (which I found in Carnival and Hammered, etc).

My only problem, and this might be my problem as it happens in many Bear novels for me, is that there is often a lot of unspoken/innuendo going on that just flies over my head, and so sometimes I'm reading along all merrily and I'll go "what just happened?" or have only a vague idea of what's going on.

Anyway, I liked it. Totally worth reading.