The Hostile Takeover Trilogy Book

This one seemed like it very badly wanted to be Dune when it grew up, but unfortunately Swann's style lacked any of Herbert's ornamentation or occasional lyricism. The premise was interesting, and there were moments it was good... but the moments became frustrating because so much of the rest was utterly pedestrian. And don't get me started on the attempted/aborted romance.

I love the idea of political, economic and social explorations in SF, and books such as Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy, CJ Cherryh's Downbelow Station, George Turner's The Sea And Summer, and the aforementioned Dune pull it off in compelling and fascinating reads. Unfortunately this one struggled to hold my interest in the same way at the aforementioned. It's probably a sign when more time is devoted to describing the exact mechanisms and potentials of weapons systems than social systems. To be fair however, there were some good ideas, such as the communes based around various political, religious, or philosophical tenets; and both the Proteus Commune and Bakunin Church of Christ, Avenger won points for going in interesting or amusing (if not utterly original) directions.

For me, the best thing this trilogy had going for it were the confusions around time and space travel, and implications that had for identity and sequences of events. There were moments I wasn't entirely sure who was who, or why, or when; and the reveal proved to be satisfying, in the way that the better dealings with time travel usually are.

It's a shame that the characters, much of the plot, and the writing couldn't support the better ideas more satisfyingly. I would have liked to like this one more.