battmutler 's review for:

The Overstory by Richard Powers
3.0

The first part was incredible, and if it tied into something a bit less grandiose, I think the whole would have ended up better. The rest was a bit of a slog, particularly most of Trunk. It was long enough that I got to spend plenty of time with all of the characters, yet I still didn't find myself caring about them most of the time. I didn't feel like I knew them. Then again, I feel this way about most ensemble novels.

Patricia's monologues seem like an inelegant way for Powers to directly address the reader, or to coherently summarize the research he did - it's cumbersome and preachy.

Just because a species or an individual doesn't meet our standard criteria of "intelligence", that doesn't necessarily mean they're dumb. It probably just means we're not looking hard enough.