Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Waaaaayyyy too heavy on the world-building, but also, whaaaaaat an incredible world she builds! I haven't been this taken with the first installment of a series since Robert Jackson Bennett's City of Stairs (and that became one of my all-time favorite series). The world she builds is so dense, realistic and well thought-out -- it's in the S-Tier of sci-fi worlds. But still, way too much world-building to make it a great novel on its own. I didn't even really feel in the groove of it until about halfway through (and then I didn't want to put it down).

While I understand what Palmer's going for with the elaborate narrative voice, I found it pretty tedious. Likewise with her emphasis on Enlightenment philosophers -- it's basically the only time her world feels unnatural and overwrought. I think the novel would have been stronger with that style choice toned/edited way down. The only other part that stood out to me in a bad way was the climactic summit which takes place in a brothel and during which the leaders of the planet are all simultaneously engaging in various stages of coitus. As much as I would like to grant Palmer the benefit of the doubt that her world is just as libertine as all that, it was impossible to suspend disbelief for something so ludicrous to my apparently more puritanical sensibilities.

Palmer's basically asking me to believe that virtually everything about our civilization 300 years from now will be more enlightened and rational, except for we will all be exponentially more sex-crazed, such that middle-aged global leaders will be literally incapable of restraining themselves during the most urgent political crisis in decades. And I simply can't... it's just a big ol' "WTAF" in my mind. It seems far more likely to me that as our civilization evolves and "progresses" we will grow to understand that our society's current relationship with sex is obsessive and unhealthy, and we will be less preoccupied with it in the future (which is not to say more puritanical).

Last complaint was about the cliffhanger ending. If I had known this was only Part I of an 800 page book I may not have even read it. Buuuuuttttt... as frustrated as I am that this leaves very little resolved, I'm also really excited to continue the series. That's a feat in itself, because I usually don't take kindly to an author jerking me around like this. But yeah, judging by ratings it just gets better from here, and I'm hopeful that laying all this groundwork in the 1st installment means we can hit the ground running in the next one.