This was a fun one! Over three sections, a cast of hundreds, and a thousand years, the population of a newly terraformed planet struggles for sovereignty from its corporate owners. Newitz said they wanted to write something optimistic about the future, and I feel like that really worked here. We see the long-haul project of millions chipping away at power in big ways and small, intentionally and otherwise, and how that really can work. It might have been a bit heavy handed at times, especially around how history simplifies complicated events, and wants a clear hero narrative when actual social movements are multitudinous and murky, but I'm also the choir that doesn't mind being preached to. (Small amount of cake was both had and eaten around the legacy of the first protagonist, but oh well.)

The worldbuilding reminded me a lot of Le Guin (specifically Compass Rose) for its embrace of intelligent animals and views of what counts as sentience. The protagonists of each section are in order: a genetically and cybernetically-modified human, a non-binary Neanderthal from a hidden civilisation, and a flying omnibus who falls in love with a journalist cat. It's chaotic and doesn't give a shit, and I enjoyed it immensely.