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fairymodmother 's review for:
The Terraformers
by Annalee Newitz
This was the most inoffensive almost kawaii look at genocide I've ever read. Which is a very uncomfortable thing to feel, but also, I'm not offended? I am in a cozy but atrocious recursive cycle.
CONTENT WARNING:
Things that were good:
-The terraforming. The actual "what do we have to do to prepare the planet for more life forms" part was neat.
-Animal buddies! Who DOESN'T want to be friends with a flying moose?!
-Feel good look at feel bad things. You at least won't be sad!
Things that I didn't like:
-How can you feel good about feel bad things? I don't know, man. I'm not sure I'm really interested in cozying up with extreme capitalism and slavery? The dissonance of just being alive in a world that relies on mega corporations is already a pretty precarious part of being a human. More was not really what I wanted.
-Illogical. Sigh. That's not how contracts work. That's not how real estate works, that's not how medical experimentation works etc. etc. etc. I get it, it's fun to make corporate overlords who "own" people, but in a world where real corporate overlords actually do own people, let's make it make sense, you know? Make it add up. Show me the work in worldbuilding that got us here. That actually goes for everything going on in this book, not just the slavery, although that's the yuckiest part.
-Really a collection of novellas. Which is fine, but it did feel like different books rather than episodes in the world. I found it disjointed.
I think perhaps the worst thing I can say about a book about huge social wrongs is that I felt nothing from it. And I think the nicest thing I can say about this book is that I have no ill feelings. So...it's okay.
CONTENT WARNING:
Spoiler
genocide, slavery, animal cruelty, xenophobia, medical experimentationThings that were good:
-The terraforming. The actual "what do we have to do to prepare the planet for more life forms" part was neat.
-Animal buddies! Who DOESN'T want to be friends with a flying moose?!
-Feel good look at feel bad things. You at least won't be sad!
Things that I didn't like:
-How can you feel good about feel bad things? I don't know, man. I'm not sure I'm really interested in cozying up with extreme capitalism and slavery? The dissonance of just being alive in a world that relies on mega corporations is already a pretty precarious part of being a human. More was not really what I wanted.
-Illogical. Sigh. That's not how contracts work. That's not how real estate works, that's not how medical experimentation works etc. etc. etc. I get it, it's fun to make corporate overlords who "own" people, but in a world where real corporate overlords actually do own people, let's make it make sense, you know? Make it add up. Show me the work in worldbuilding that got us here. That actually goes for everything going on in this book, not just the slavery, although that's the yuckiest part.
-Really a collection of novellas. Which is fine, but it did feel like different books rather than episodes in the world. I found it disjointed.
I think perhaps the worst thing I can say about a book about huge social wrongs is that I felt nothing from it. And I think the nicest thing I can say about this book is that I have no ill feelings. So...it's okay.