The Terraformers

A rounded-up 2.5 stars. DNF at around 70%. Ultimately this is a silly book. Granted, it attempts to touch on some deep issues about personhood, and paints a clear picture of a dystopian future, however it get continually bogged down in nonsensical details.

The first third of the book is interesting, however the middle third gets bogged down in the details of planning a mass-transit system, which, while academically interesting, is not really what I expect from a story covering tens of thousands of years of terraforming. Granted this is meant to be tempered by various inter-personal relationships, however none of these really felt real or consequential. In addition, some of the details of the books just seemed flat-out silly - so much so that I wonder if it was actually meant to be humorous (something that completely passed me by if so). Leaving aside the image of flying moose (I just can't picture that in a way that doesn't look ridiculous - and why would you choose moose?!), the point at which there was serious discussion about how to allow a worm to board a train was the one where I mentally threw the book across the room.

Given that other people have marked this as 5 stars, I can well believe that I have overlooked something fundamental, however I am struggling to see what that can be.