THE TERRAFORMERS - Annalee Newitz


 Two stories in one ... 

The Environmental Rescue Team is an old organization dedicated to preventing the collapse of ecosystems. Destry is an analyst with the E.R.T. currently working on the planet Sask-E to terraform an earth-like world. Her companion is a moose named, Whistle. But Destry discovers an ancient city on this supposedly barren world, hidden inside an old volcano. She knows what the E.R.T. wants her to do, but Destry is the one on the planet and she'll need to make a decision, which will have repercussions one way or the other, depending on her decision.

Jump ahead 700 years and Misha, Destry's protege, is now building a planet-wide transit system, working with Sulfur - an engineer from Volcano City. The two discover a secret about the corporation that has been buying up massive amounts of land around the planet. The information is too valuable and important not to share, but too dangerous to do anything other than keep it quiet. What will they do?

This book has some absolutely incredible world-building (pun intended). Author Annalee Newitz has really taken pains to bring us into a world that is both familiar and completely foreign. I felt as though we were dropped into the middle of the opening story and, like being dropped in the middle of a forest, we had to figure out what was happening as we made our way along. 

I was excited by this and I read through this quite eagerly. But then the story changed. Or rather, then we got a new story. And I didn't care.

Destry was a compelling character, and her work on Sask-E was fascinating - as was the company she worked for. Misha and Sulfur were quite bland and it seemed as though we went from a character-driven story to a plot-driven story with completely different characters. And the plot hadn't hooked me enough to keep me interested.

There's so much potential here, but the strong start disappeared and we were left with a story that needed some terraforming.

Looking for a good book? The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz starts out strong but when the book changes characters, setting, and time frame, that strength disappears.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

3 stars

* * * * * *

The Terraformers

author: Annalee Newitz

publisher: Tor Books

ISBN: 9781250228017

hardcover, 338 pages

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