Stumbled over this book coincidentally because I saw some notes about the successor novel. Read a bit about the series, and, well, what can I say -- currently in the Trisolaris trilogy, being reminded of Lem's fantastic pessimistic works about alient contact -- I just had to take a slight detour in between.

Now, in other comments and reviews, two key elements stick out: 1. Hard Science Fiction 2. Deep dive into subjects of consciousness, free will, identity, and their neurological foundation.

I tend to disagree. The science is much softer than implied, and the deep dive remains a bit more shallow than I expected.

None of this is a problem, because the novel presents an excellent story, a cast of characters that are well developed, and a really believable vision of how humanity might develop. All of those are much more important to me than tags of "Hard SF" and "Cognitive Science".

If you like Science Fiction, are not scared of some psychology, and can enjoy an occasionally confusing first person narrative, put it on your reading list. If you like reading without paying, cc-licensed, no problem -- in my case, I'll order the sequel not only because I'm still curious, but because I can thus pay back for a few hours of fun.

Also, I like a web page from an active author being (C) 2014 and no Twitter or Facebook handle.