As a world-building experiment complete with planet-sized terraforming projects, centuries-long urban planning policies, and biomechanical creatures of varying sentience and form, I found this book thoroughly enjoyable.

However, I think I struggled with the structure of the novel, even as I came to understand Newitz’s attempts to emphasize that monumental societal change does not necessarily happen overnight. Sometimes it takes generations, even when those generations live for centuries, rather than decades.

And so, this book is split into three novella-sized plots, each one taking place several hundred years after its predecessor. Again, while I appreciate the author’s notion that The Revolution is not always instantaneous, this three-part structure made it difficult to connect with any character in particular.

Scratch that, By the time I had connected with Destry of the Environmental Rescue Team – an ecological engineer purpose-designed for her job – the first plot was finished, and I was thrust seven (?) hundred years into the future, with characters who reference Destry as a hero, but who do not land as well as the first plot.

The overall plot between the three timeframes worked, I think. I just found it jarring.

I think Newitz did an excellent job of taking big, messy ideas, like bioengineered limits on intelligence based on one’s role in society, or the Personhood of creatures other than hominids, and including some biomechanical beings, or the concept of a society where people have mastered ecological balance as a form of control (and profit)… Newitz takes these grandiose ideas, and then allows little microcosms of character dialogue talk debate, challenge, and advocate for them in very accessible ways.

The world was incredibly well thought-out and felt lived in. The characters sounded unique and fully realized with their own motives and flaws, and the plot was cohesive and nuanced, even across multiple large time jumps.

This book is worth reading for those reasons, even if its structure feels a little forced.

Steve D