Simmons builds an extremely interesting world, it's just too bad he has no interest in exploring it. Instead he seems to see it as a challenge to fill his book with mediocre science fiction tropes -- it's all there: poetry excerpts, laughably bad sex scenes, an awkward focus on references, metaphors and similes to "XYZ thing from the 20th century", and a painfully bad ending that Simmons clearly thought would be "epic"

It's a shame that the characters, story, and writing of this book is so terrible, because the periphery is fantastic. Every time Simmons takes a minute from navel-gazing about 19th century poets, he shows a gem of a universe he's created. A gem that he's resolute about not exploring or expanding upon.