I really liked the first half of the book or so. The environment was cool. The science felt really well researched - which is not a surprise given Robinson's scientific chops. The characters really felt different from one another, and their backstories helped flesh them out, as well as avoid the necessary exposition sound like an info dump. Especially the first chapters of Frank, Maya, and Nadia brought very different perspectives and made me connect with the main characters.

Unfortunately, from the Michel chapter - which to me, with no qualification in the field whatsoever, sounded like plain drivel - the book takes a nosedive. John's chapter is just mindless wandering, and any sense of urgency evaporates right there and then thanks to huge McGuffin. In Frank's chapter, the big question mark from his first chapter gets basically completely ignored, and while the pacing picks up, the storyline takes a hard turn towards open political critique instead of the hard sci-fi from the first half of the book. Nadia's chapter is more mindless wandering, with what feels like 100s of pages of exposition, spent confirming something the reader already knows. Finally, the end is here, but it's unsatisfying, partially thanks to the PoV character being so at odds with such a happy ending, and the whole storyline being extremely contrived. Since it's the first book in a three part series, I understand why an ending fitting the depressing mood wouldn't work, but it also means I don't think I'll read the other two.