Hardcover, 352 pages
English language
Published by Tor Books.
From science fiction visionary Annalee Newitz comes The Terraformers, a sweeping, uplifting, and illuminating exploration of the future.
Destry's life is dedicated to terraforming Sask-E. As part of the Environmental Rescue Team, she cares for the planet and its burgeoning eco-systems as her parents and their parents did before her.
But the bright, clean future they're building comes under threat when Destry discovers a city full of people that shouldn’t exist, hidden inside a massive volcano.
As she uncovers more about their past, Destry begins to question the mission she's devoted her life to, and must make a choice that will reverberate through Sask-E's future for generations to come.
A science fiction epic for our times and a love letter to our future, The Terraformers will take you on a journey spanning thousands of years and exploring the triumphs, strife, and hope that find us wherever we make our home. …
From science fiction visionary Annalee Newitz comes The Terraformers, a sweeping, uplifting, and illuminating exploration of the future.
Destry's life is dedicated to terraforming Sask-E. As part of the Environmental Rescue Team, she cares for the planet and its burgeoning eco-systems as her parents and their parents did before her.
But the bright, clean future they're building comes under threat when Destry discovers a city full of people that shouldn’t exist, hidden inside a massive volcano.
As she uncovers more about their past, Destry begins to question the mission she's devoted her life to, and must make a choice that will reverberate through Sask-E's future for generations to come.
A science fiction epic for our times and a love letter to our future, The Terraformers will take you on a journey spanning thousands of years and exploring the triumphs, strife, and hope that find us wherever we make our home.
"Brilliantly thoughtful, prescient, and gripping.”—Martha Wells, author of The Murderbot Diaries
The world building and theorycrafting are excellent but the plot does feel uneven. The first third has great pacing but the latter thirds are slow or jumpy. Enjoyed it but found it hard to finish as it felt like it lacked momentum through the second half.
I found this a little disappointing, especially as the book starts off well. The worldbuilding in the first section is good, but the pacing is quite contrived, and there is little suspense as the Checkhov's gun gets fired almost immediately every time.
The second and third section remind me of Gardens of the Moon, where the author also decided that the first batch of characters is not that interesting and we ought to start "from scratch". Unfortunately, the story is also full of filler: a lot of walking, a lot of smut, a lot of what feels like completely predictable and forced romance. The politics discussed in the book are very one sided. The cool ideas from the first part (being able to figure out what's happening via sensors in the surroundings) are borderline forgotten in the second or third part.
And living trains? Come on, what's next, uplifted dolphins?
i really wanted to like this one. the topics are important, the messages, as far as i could grab, right.
but the art of telling the tale... until the end of the first part everthing was fine: the characters, the development of the story. the second part started the build up with new characters and arc anew, but in lesser time, and the third rushed the same process even more. and the grand scheme in the background didn't deepen with the new parts, but lost every time some of it's aspects to get a conclusion.
hated this, hated ministry of the future, does a sci-fit future climate utopia exist for me? nope.
jeffery tumlin getting a shout out in the ackowledgements was funny, tho
Plenty to like here in environmental, more-than-human kin, queer and anti-capitalist themes in a fairly comic presentation. And yet it's really off as a paced story, as characters jut in or out or beep past, or as a deeply considered world or future confronting injustice, and the incoherence just built for me as emotions rose towards the end.
