wliu 's review for:

The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz
4.0
A good book with great worldbuilding (I especially enjoyed the emphasis on sustainability), but it relies a little too much on character stereotypes [1] and has a few plot holes [2] and potential plot points that end up going nowhere [3]. It also drew a _little_ too much attention to remote video calling, in my opinion (seems like it was trying to relate to the new climate of remote work, which is not a bad thing - just seemed a bit heavy-handed).

[1]
SpoilerLong acting as the person who should be on the same team, but ends up defecting. Or Misha & Sulfur having a rough start to their work relationship, then falling in love with each other.


[2]
SpoilerIf Mounts (and Blessed) are people, why couldn't they just say that? Their limiter only blocks multisyllable words. And besides, Zest seems to know about the limiters in her role as a bioengineer. So this shouldn't exactly be a secret... And how, exactly, does a train live a normal, non-train life? They're a train. It seems like their only option would be to live in their remote 24/7, which sounds unappealing and gives weight to Misha's argument against them. (Not that flying, talking trains aren't cool. Those sound amazing.)


[3]
SpoilerWhistle can finally speak his mind, he's enraged, and...Part 1 ends. Huh? No closure on that at all. And based on what happens in Part 2, there weren't even any revelations about that! It's all business as usual. Cylindra implies that the Archaea are forced to keep decanting more Archaea because that's what Verdance templated them to do. Sulfur has a crisis of confidence - and then does nothing with that information.