I was hoping for so much more. Despite what the blurb promises, there’s very little exploration of different forms of sentience, and most of the book is dedicated to the history of the human colonists. Stevland doesn’t really appear until half-way through the book, and even when we get his POV is feels more or less like all the other characters. There are a few glimmers of something more interesting, like when Stevland negotiates between various plants, but ultimately there’s not enough plot to be engaging and not enough creativity to be interesting.