An interestingly thought-out semi-cyberpunkish future with a rapidly degenerating socio-politcal climate, a recovering post-mental-breakdown poet finding his writings twisted and amplified by a sometimes-violent social movement with which he deeply disagrees, and an unexpected rare opportunity to learn and work with a very large and complex interstellar Union of a wide variety of alien races, all weave together into an interesting and fun read in The Pollutant Speaks.

I appreciated that the story integrated both awareness of the increasingly unrestful and violent socio-political climate and the vast alienness of the interstellar Union as the main character encountered elements of each . This kind of world-building can be difficult to do without a lot of info-dumping, and it was done decently well here.

I don't know if the author intends to continue the story with future volumes, but if he does, I might have to pick them up to see what follows.