A review by stardustrohrig
The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz

adventurous dark hopeful informative medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was a really interesting book with a lot going on. It’s split into three sections with large time jumps between each section – basically focusing on one generation to the next with some overlap of characters. There are a lot of great characters and the world building is complex. In some ways I would have preferred it if there had been some closure to each section because of how abrupt the time jumps felt. However by the end it becomes clear that the point was to show that real societal change often takes multiple lifetimes to achieve. There’s no simple solutions and no quick fixes. 

I did have mixed feelings about how intelligence is used in the book. Everyone on the planet is artificially created including some “animals” and machines/robots that are now sapient and are considered people. Because everyone is created from specific templates, there’s a lot of discussion about intelligence levels. The different design types have “limiters” that control how “intelligent” a person is. I do think the reader is supposed to come away with mixed feeling about it because of how things played out. There are clearly characters who disagree completely with the intelligence system and the limiters, however most don’t go the full step of changing anything for the characters who have been limited in this way. 

Overall I thought the author did a good job exploring the various issues and showing the problems that a society can have even in the far future. The intelligence issue isn’t the main issue being solved but it is relevant to the overall themes and is part of the many ways the people of Sask-E have been manipulated and controlled and that freedom comes in multiple forms.