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?