While some people are seeking to create farming collectives to survive, others decide to raise armies in order to take control off the newly formed farms. These parallel developments lead inexorably to conflict and at times a captivating tale.
Unfortunately, Stirling couldn't help but fall in love with his own book, with the result that the reader is inundated with a tonne of unnecessary information. One of my favourite science fiction writers uses a technique called, "killing your babies." In effect, this technique teachers writers how to eliminate parts of a story that do not assist in advancing the narrative, but which the writer has difficulty in letting go because they have become so enamoured with their characters. Stirling should have used this technique in this book, and this novel is filled with a ton of screaming "babies" that should have been edited out from this book.
In a nutshell, this otherwise excellent story is undermined by countless pages of unnecessary description and rambling scenes. Far too often the reader has to plough through extraneous pages that should have been edited out. In fact, by the end of the book, finishing this novel had become painful as I was thoroughly bored with the book. Which is a shame, as this story had the makings of an excellent tale.
2 out of 5 stars
