review:
This book is about political prisoners being sent to an alient planet with an ecology so uniquely distinct from the gradual evolution of species on Earth that makes it fascinating reading - for the parts where the future dystpian fascism is shown to directly affect science (even if seemingly heavy handed) and the sheer creativity of how to dream an alien life that is free from the frustrating anthromorphic tendency of humans to see humanity in everything. Reading this reminded me a lot of Lem's works because of alien-ness of the alien ecology being beyond human comprehen, and Proxima by Baxter for its depiction of alien life being composed of modular components instead of organ-based cellular clusters as we have on Earth. I didn't find a single dull moment in the book - the start and end were both enthralling.,