The Terraformers

Reposted from elsewhere...

I read this in anticipation of a book club coming up this week (actually finished this on February 16th). I hadn't read any of Annalee's previous work, and am not super well-read in Sci-Fi, and certainly not what I would call more environmental science fiction. It was interesting, though I thought it had a little too much going on at times. I thought the actual writing was fine - a little stiff, and some things were said in ways that just didn't need to be (as in, the author describes a character's reaction but then says point-blank the emotion they are feeling in ways that aren't necessary).

I enjoyed the book's exploration and boundary-pushing of what personhood is and how we conceive of it. Though, some characters sort of undermine this (example: the living trains essentially separating into biped or quadruped “bodies” to function in larger society). The moral message is... not subtle. The antagonists (which sort of weirdly shift midway through) are cartoonishly evil and did not really ring true for me.

I rated this 3/5 on Goodreads. I think it was a fine read, I'm curious as to how it'll be received at the book club. At least a full start of that is because I found the use of pronouns and exploration of gender, personhood, and plural/singular people (as in, dyads identifying as singular, not simply someone using they/them pronouns) very interesting in this.