association-list

I really wanted to like this more than I did. Williams’ far-​​future Mars/​Earth sto­ries and novel are the work of hers I like the most, in tone and theme, but this book seemed very much rushed, on a number of axes. The first part of the novel — which has been exten­sively sketched out in short sto­ries over the last couple of years — is pretty strong. But at some point the writ­ing gets ahead of the plan­ning, and it all falls apart. The qual­ity of the edit­ing and copy edit­ing also drop off in the latter half of the novel.

This is a shame, as this could have been a very fine book with a little bit more time to bake and some of the glitches ironed out. Hope­fully if it gets a US release it’ll get another working-​​over to put a final coat of polish on it.