

The premise was really interesting, but I felt like it had tonal issues, where it neither avoided nor embraced the potential horror elements of the premise. I liked that was got to see various generations of the human society, but there were some aspects of the time-skips that made it harder to appreciate. I'd also have appreciated the book making it clearer what Stevland's limitations were, before they became plot relevant, so that we had a better sense of what threats he posed, and what threats he was able to address. Ultimately, my biggest dissatisfaction with this was that the alien intellect didn't feel as alien as I would have liked.
The premise was really interesting, but I felt like it had tonal issues, where it neither avoided nor embraced the potential horror elements of the premise. I liked that was got to see various generations of the human society, but there were some aspects of the time-skips that made it harder to appreciate. I'd also have appreciated the book making it clearer what Stevland's limitations were, before they became plot relevant, so that we had a better sense of what threats he posed, and what threats he was able to address. Ultimately, my biggest dissatisfaction with this was that the alien intellect didn't feel as alien as I would have liked.