Rampant fangirlism kind of paid off a little -- Dr. Gunther-Hagen makes me melt in that scientist-fangirl way, and there's more science/callbacks to other books than there have been lately.
I attribute it to the fact that the book... is actually something like enjoyable. It evoked an emotion other than "fuck them, I don't give a damn" from my bitter, hardened, black little heart.
And it has all the crazy-awesome of your hilariously-bad science-fiction pulp novel.