The Terraformers

However! the new storyline is an urban planning adventure, where the ragtag group of ecologically-minded urban planners try to deliver appropriate, sustainable services to the people on this planet, in spite of orders from their corporate/government overlords. Hard to dislike that plotline.

Noted on August 20, 2025

Ok now we’ve got a thousand year time jump, with mostly all new characters and incredibly low stakes (so far). And an interspecies sex scene. And now everybody introduces themselves with their pronouns. Feels like it shifted into Becky Chambers territory. Is this book doing cozy hopepunk now? This is not my scene, I think.

Noted on August 19, 2025

Audiobook narrator: I do not enjoy this woman’s voice. But this recording did include some sound effects for different characters (different kinds of robots mostly) that was… helpful? Good? I was surprised to enjoy that part.

Noted on August 19, 2025

Having just re-read Moonbound, this seems very Sloanian in its actual content. Far future, large scale ecological management via talking animals. Sensor network and data packets in natural world / rhizomes / spores etc. “Decanting” Homo sapiens by technological overlords. Lotsa moonbound stuff here! Or maybe he’s borrowing from this, I don’t know, it’s just that the overlaps are notable. Likely there's a shared ancestry anyways.

Not that it’s bad; many books have spaceships and wizards! So lots of books can have talking ecosystem manager animals. I guess!

Noted on August 19, 2025