Plot: 4/9. It’s an anticlimactic and lackluster adventure, weighed down by the protagonist’s monotone and verbose harangue.
When the protagonist tried to destroy an ag-bot to rescue Iris and their other teammates, a B-E SecUnit shot the ag-bot directly without any concern about the protagonist’s safety. Iris then thanked Dellcourt, the leader of this B-E contingent, for their help. The protagonist’s team then wanted to persuade factions on the colony to reject the malicious salvage of B-E who aimed at taking over this planet, before they were amazed to learn that there existed a reclusive group of separatists living at the pole near the terraforming engine.
So they landed there and the protagonist explored the found hatchway, where they communicated with the system of that colony called AdaCol2, only to discover unfortunately that B-E’s men had already reached them. Although the separatists invited the protagonist’s team into their basement, their diplomat grudged their words to the protagonist’s team. What’s more, the head of this B-E’s contingent, Leonide, asked for a meeting of negotiation. But she kept ridiculously accusing the protagonist’s group of persuading the colonists to stay so as to record the influence of contamination on the colonists, before the protagonist realized the separatists had been spying their whole conversation. Desperate to convince the separatists of B-E’s danger, the protagonist made a video warning them not to sign exploitative contracts with B-E and asked AdaCol2 to upload it to its public channel as a gift. It worked somehow, because the separatists requested both of them to leave.
In the second meeting Leonide initiated with the protagonist’s team before their departure, the protagonist helped Leonide to escape an assassination attempt by her subordinates. Leonide told them there existed a schism within the leadership, and the hawks—currently arriving on two ships carried with more lethal Murdurbots—wanted to annihilate her to launch an invasion of this planet brutally.
So with the assistance of ART, the protagonist guarded her and his own team out of the basement and reunited with the group. They and ART respectively took down a SecUnit dispatched by B-E. The last SecUnit pursuing them, however, turned out to be a rogue and simply let the protagonist go. In the end, occupied in their own schismatic business, B-E’s evil plot absolutely failed and the protagonist continued to travel with ART.
Character: 5/9. It just highlights the protagonist and ART heavily, eclipsing the other teammates and the colonists as usual.
By the way, I would have scored it higher, if Martha Wells could have given more interactions or dynamics around the team and introduced them in a less confusing and careless way, for not every reader is a fan who read Martha Wells’ previous books and had a photographic memory.
World and Others: 5/9. I felt the alien exploration real, detailed, and convincing but boring and sometimes convoluted.
In addition, several potentially intriguing elements—such as the colony factions and the separatists’ culture—remained untouched.