A review by hawkeyegough
2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson

2.0

This book had really good world-building and tech. The culture and politics were interesting. One of the story lines is even intriguing. Unfortunately this is all buried under my antipathy for the main characters. I didn't really like any of them, which prevented me from engaging much with this book. It also seems like an interesting take to be patronizing to anybody who happens to live on Earth. It's almost as if this book was intended for audiences several centuries in the future who live in the Andromeda galaxy. I also felt as though the main character felt as though she was superior to the Earth-bound humans and treated them like children. She scorned their decadence while living in a pretty decadent fashion herself. The hypocrisy of this made it really hard to root for her, and the supporting cast was too bland to counteract this. I wish I had heard more about the flying habitats/spacecraft and less about the beneficial effects of hermaphroditism on lifespan and health. It all came together in a confusing jumble of preachy, rambly, kinda gross slog with random sections of free association chapters that added little to nothing to the plot. I think aliens might love this, but I can't recommend it to anyone who lives on Earth.