I wanted a nuanced exploration of the Environmental Rescue Team’s role within terraforming, especially when it occurred on privately owned planets. I wanted to dive into the ethics and the process of the Grand Bargain, whereby animals are given ways to communicate their thoughts to humans. I don’t want to dive too deep into what I expected, lest it feels like my whining is an objective statement, but I felt that some larger questions were left unexplored. It makes for a more accessible novel about terraforming, but it leaves someone like me yearning for more. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing, sometimes you have to let your brain rest in one area, while digesting new ideas. Don’t get me wrong, some of the more interesting ideas come from the political conversations, I just didn’t feel a lot of tension due to politicking. It delves into some of the scientific nuance while skirting away from the social and political aspects. Part of my frustration stems from liking big stories like the ones The Terraformers draws upon, but this novel didn’t scratch the same itch. The relationships, though they were fun and exciting as Newitz pushed the boundaries on who was capable and worthy of relationships, also didn’t feel very deep. But also just how easily balances within systems can be upset. I greatly admired the attention to detail Newitz paid to ecological processes and the time that goes into them. I appreciated the effort Newitz put into making curses more ecologically focused, even if they became silly at times. Some of the dialogue was wooden, but some of it had the perfect amount of cheekiness. It made the characters feel a bit flat, their traits emphasized by their job and a few quirky likes. With the three hundred pages split between three separate timelines, it felt too condensed. Part of me can’t move on with this review without bringing up some of the ‘technical aspects’ of the book. So it leaves me with a little less than I was expecting while weirdly fulfilling some cravings I did not know about. To be fair, I think this dissonance is a matter of taste and I was expecting something a bit heavier and more gritty with the details, even if the overall tone was not such. For me the experience was a mixed bag, swinging wildly between romance and mass death in jarring ways. Questions that felt organic to the story, and spurred on by Newitz. On the other hand, there were moments of serious questioning that arose from the specific ways Newitz wrote about certain ideas. On one hand, the story is a little too cozy for my taste, with easily resolved plot lines mixed with nice slice of life moments. I don’t really know how to describe my feelings towards The Terraformers. The members of her ERT debate about how to handle the situation and their decisions echo through the next several thousand years. Working with her team, she goes to visit the cave system hidden within a volcano that belongs to the very first terraformers. But Destry notices that there might be a hidden city where there shouldn’t be. 60,000 years in the future though, they are highly skilled park rangers that keep an eye on fledgling planets, nudging the feedback loops in the right directions when necessary. The ERT is a long-standing organization developed not long after our time to help correct the course as climate change wreaked havoc on the systems we know today. She’s helping to make sure that interlopers to the planet Sask-e don’t cause imbalances to the growing ecosystem that is currently transforming the planet to pleistocene-like conditions. Still don’t know if it’s for you? Keep reading and you’ll find out!ĭestry is a member of the Environmental Rescue Team (ERT). Unfortunately for me, it felt a little too cozy in some places while being very good at diving deeper into the nature of ecologies. It has ecological processes, flying moose, talking beavers, and romantic relationships between people of varying species! It’s a fun, not quite light-hearted story about the people who make such a place their home, and their mission. If so, then maybe a book such as The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz is right for you. Who doesn’t like a little space talk with their science fiction novels? No, the deep dark void is not your bag? Can I interest you in planets then? Particularly barren planets that are repurposed with the intent to house human and animal life.
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