The Terraformers by AnnaLee Newitz

Source: Netgalley, many thanks to the pubsliher!!
TL; DR: Not for me. The characters in this were flatter than cardboard. I sincerely loved the ideas here but I couldn’t handle those characters.

Plot: The plot in this felt like it had some really ‘important things’ to say but was lost in the noise
Characters: Pick up a cardboard box and you’ll have way more depth. Did not come across. Not good.
Setting: Great idea here, the world felt real and vibrant
Tech: More great ideas here! Loved these ideas but again, murdered by my intense dislike of the characters

Thoughts:

In full honesty this was a DNF for me. The characters were incredibly flat to the point that the whole store felt stale. It was unreadable for lack of any real character depth or interest. The events of the novel felt almost manipulative because of how flat the characters were.

However the ideas here were fascinating. If you’re looking for a novel with intensely interesting ideas and you can completely ignore the characters then I would recommend this. From the company that focuses on terraforming for profit to the point of creating their own persons to do it, to the ideas of personhood that raises and worth, it had some super interesting things going on. For me I couldn’t enjoy those. The characters, which should have held up the stories here were just… bad and flat.