I think I would have enjoyed this a lot more if I’d immersed myself in it for a couple of long reading session. Alas, I picked it off my shelf during a spell of 10-minutes-at-most reading sessions, and that is just not the way to read this book.

It’s… huge. It talks about billions of years quite casually, it covers the entire galaxy and more, and there are more species than I could quite keep a grasp of. And yet the story is actually quite simple, if a little winding.

There are a lot of side strands that ultimately didn’t seem to add anything, and while interesting, they often just left me puzzled. Some of the descriptions – especially with colours – are dazzling, if a little tacked-on at times. And I confess, through tiredness and more, I often had to go back and reread paragraphs to actually draw out the plot thread rather than the background.

Overall, good setting, nice enough story, but nothing that’s going to have you jumping in your seat.

Pretty cool, but not as good as I’d hoped. I’d still recommend it to friends. I loved the Dwellers.