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A review by drlark
The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz
adventurous
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
3.5
I understand the mixed reviews for this book. It is both the cozy sci-fi of Becky Chambers -- in the distant future, the inhabitants of a terrraforming planet look out for each other and are engaged in creating/living in a sustainable, respectful society -- and the corporate dystopian hellscape of the Murderbot Diaries. We've got talking animals and bots who're considered people and cartoonish corporate overlords who can murder them from space with a laser.
I think that it....mostly works. I kind of wish that Tor had decided to release this as three novellas, as it reads like three episodes of a drama rather than one novel. I think the second part is an objectively rough reading experience, with an overly drawn-out plot about public transit logistics and some pretty flat characters. It is also about as subtle as a box of hammers in its political message. This is not a tidy package of a book.
And yet? I had a great time in parts 1 and 3, and some of the writing had me chortling out loud. If you can handle all the talking animals and the interspecies sex, it's worth a try. Not a good intro-to-science-fiction recommendation, but a fun addition to the genre.
I think that it....mostly works. I kind of wish that Tor had decided to release this as three novellas, as it reads like three episodes of a drama rather than one novel. I think the second part is an objectively rough reading experience, with an overly drawn-out plot about public transit logistics and some pretty flat characters. It is also about as subtle as a box of hammers in its political message. This is not a tidy package of a book.
And yet? I had a great time in parts 1 and 3, and some of the writing had me chortling out loud. If you can handle all the talking animals and the interspecies sex, it's worth a try. Not a good intro-to-science-fiction recommendation, but a fun addition to the genre.