Review: Engrossing and original
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 11, 2014
I enjoyed this book on many levels. The world building was awesome. I found the parallels with our earth's problems with overpopulation and the resulting ecological strain on the planet to be profound, although on Gann, it describes an interesting aftermath and the people's cultural response to that.Because the H is a lizard, I didn't find the descriptions of sex to be very titillating, but their love story is very moving. Both H and h are brave, heroic and committed to their ideals, and there are some very humorous moments as well.There are many characters in this story and some are complex, while a few major side characters are so predictably the same as to be one-dimensional. At the end, the author goes to great lengths to have characters explain the origins of Gann's prevailing belief system, but leaves a few things unexplained, like why the atmosphere finally clears, revealing the sun for the first time in decades. Those things, however, weren't enough to ruin my enjoyment of the story. It's a long novel, but I couldn't put it down.