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We have a grand concept, a BIG IDEA, a different take on First Contact and the Fermi Paradox. That’s the good part.

The bad part is that after an interesting opening, we have to slog through page after page, chapter after chapter of talking, talking, and more talking. A bunch of people we never come to care about just sitting around talking. Almost nothing ever seems to happen. And when something finally does happen, we don’t actually see it. We are told about it. This book does a whole lot of telling and very little showing.

My other objection is the way the climate crisis is casually waved aside with a few facile suggestions of carbon-capture trees. Would that it were so easy in real life. There’s no mention at all of ocean acidification and almost nothing about species depletion or loss of biodiversity. I suppose the author just wants to be upbeat, but for me this makes the novel feel much more like fantasy than science fiction.

Overall, a dud. Which is disappointing, because I’ve enjoyed Baxter’s work in the past.