Will I love Dark Orbit?

I met Carolyn Ives Gilman at Norwescon in Seattle. She was reading New Rock New Role, and enjoying it. We bonded over all things writerly. By the time I bumped into her again at Worldcon in Glasgow I had read Dark Orbit. It starts off seemingly as a classic deep space mission, but soon morphs into something quite magical. I found it a very successful blend of SF and F -- a feat that is by no means easy to pull off. Without giving spoilers, what the explorers encounter is really quite charming.