Annalee Newitz writes wonderfully cerebral novels full of intriguing concepts. Their work always guarantees worldbuilding and philosophical quandaries that have my wheels spinning for days, and THE TERRAFORMERS was no exception. After a beginning that may lose some readers with how detached and expository it reads, the novel hits its stride in its second and third parts for a wonderful exploration of terraforming, climate justice, transhumanism, and personhood.

THE TERRAFORMERS reads almost like three interconnected novellas. Only the first two parts are alluded to by the jacket copy. Destry, a network analyst with an organization called the Environmental Rescue Team (ERT), has devoted her very long life to terraforming the planet Sask-E. After making a decision that shifts Sask-E’s fate forever, the novel follows her protege Misha and engineer Sulfur as they deal with the fallout.

I’m telling you—if this book sounds interesting to you and you pick it up, stick with it past the first act. While intellectually fascinating and delightfully complex in worldbuilding, the first act’s lack of character development and strong bent towards telling-not-showing was a bit of a slog to get through. The first act does set up an important expository foundation for the second and third acts. Not only do these later sections introduce richly three-dimensional characters, but they also continue to build upon the groundwork set in the first to tell a captivating, emotionally resonant story.

This novel is deeply queer and neurodivergent as well, which I highly appreciated. There are characters along various points of the gender spectrum and many characters who are sentient but not human. I don’t want to say too much because I feel the discovery of this—in addition to the ongoing themes the novel addresses with regard to personhood and sentience—adds to the reading experience, but I absolutely loved how cool and weird (positive) and fluid and transhuman many were. It’s really in acts two and three where the Becky Chambers comp made any degree of sense to me.

Overall, I found THE TERRAFORMERS an incredibly thoughtful, creative, and fascinating read. The way it transposes issues we grapple with today onto a futuristic setting that both resembles our world and is nothing like it was excellent. I’ve long been a fan of Newitz’s writing and the deft, interrogative touch they have with technological themes, and THE TERRAFORMERS was no exception.

Thank you to Tor Books and NetGalley for an advance review copy. All opinions are my own.