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

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MURDLE VOLUME 1 - G. T. Karber

Image
 I enjoy puzzles of many different varieties. I had not heard of 'Murdle' before this but essentially this is a combination of the game of Clue and a Sherlock Holmes micro story. With suspects, possible murder weapons, potential locations, and/or motives plus some very brief hints, readers are meant to combine the logic of what's know with deductive reasoning to identify the killer (or killers?) in 100 different mystery word puzzles. I will admit right off the bat that I did not do all 100.  I didn't even do half of these, but I did so some random sampling through all the categories (Elementary, Occult Medium, Hard Boiled, and Impossible). I did not get any correct in the Impossible category (of course not ... they were impossible!) and only one correct in the Hard Boiled (of five). The Elementary puzzles were, as expected, pretty easy and the Hard Boiled only a little bit more difficult. Each mini mystery comes with a grid printed in the book to help the reader-detecti
Read more

VINYL RESTING PLACE - Olivia Blacke

Image
 Juni Jessup and her two sister, Tansy and Maggie, have gone into business together in their hometown of Cedar River, Texas, opening a combination record store and coffee shop. Vinyl LPs are making a comeback after all, despite critics thinking the medium was dead.  But speaking of 'dead' ... finding a dead body in the supply closet just as they are looking to have a grand opening is not part of the plan.  Juni's life gets more complicated when their uncle, Calvin, already a suspect in the murder, disappears. And the police officer leading the investigation is Juni's EX-boyfriend (who passive-aggressively keeps putting himself back into her life). Convinced that her uncle would never murder anyone, Juni sets out to prove his innocence - which isn't easy since he's making himself look guilty - because Calvin is family and family is EVERYthing to Juni. As readers of my blog know, I'm not a big fan of most cozy mysteries, but the setting caught my eye and my in
Read more

THE RAVEN THIEF - Gigi Pandian

Image
 With Tempest Raj now a member of the company, Secret Staircase Construction (a company who, as their title suggests, builds mystery-themed, secret rooms inside homes) has finished their first job. Their client now wants to celebrate to kick off her new beginning - new home and new life now that she's divorced from her cheating ex-husband, famous mystery author Corbin Colt. First up, a mock séance to remove any trace of Corbin from the property, led by Tempest's friend, Sanjay.   But during that séance, while all those gathered sat in a dark room holding hands, Corbin's dead body crashes the party, falling across the table in front of everyone. There were eight people in the room, and they were all holding hands, but all the evidence points to one of them being the murderer.  Suspicions point to Ash, Tempest's grandfather, because he was the only one with Corbin's blood on him. Of course, as a doctor, he was also the only one who checked on the body - wherein he acq
Read more