For some reason, it's much easier to criticize than to praise. It gets even harder when, overall, you liked a book, but can't quite put your finger on the exact reasons why you did, but could name a thousand things wrong with it. I think this is an excellent book and definitely should be on the "to-be-read" list of every self-respecting science fiction reader, but it's not that simple. I think the key to understanding the seemingly contradictory reactions I had to this book lies in the observation that Bear seems to have employed a kind of a brute-force approach to it. All great science fiction depends on evoking the reader's sense-of-wonder, and this book does it, on a magnificent scale. I didn't really think about what the title of the book meant, figuring it was just a symbolic name, but when they actually started thinking about moving a planet to a different star system, well...that's the stuff you're looking for in science fiction, the ability to think outside the envelope. The sheer scale of the technological wonders used in the book gives a warm fuzzy feeling to me, and makes up for the various flaws.

Yes, the flaws. I'm pretty sure this is by far the book with the lousiest characterisation I have ever given 5 stars to (if we exclude those books I wouldn't give 5 stars to anymore in my current scale). Casseia, as the main character, has the major flaw that she's not particularly likable. She starts out as young and naive, does stupid things, and, well, to me at least, remains that way to the end of the book (naive, not young). Sure, Bear uses fancy language to point out that he's entirely aware that what Casseia is doing is stupid and she's just not aware of it herself, the fact is I would still expect the leader of Mars to be quite a bit more cynical and not so trusting in other people.

Charles is even more annoying. Here we have a brilliant physicist whose work is going to change the world, and what does he do? Fall in love with some naive girl the minute he sees her, she dumps him, and he still thinks of her as his only true love for the rest of his life. So old, so boring, so cliche.

The ancient martian biology is unrealistic, has nothing to do with the main plot, and has a tacked-on feeling. And why oh why does every Mars-settlement book have to have its inhabitants share this near-mystical feeling for the planet? It's just a planet, nothing more, nothing less. How many of Earth's inhabitants wake up each day thinking "Oh what a marvelous planet this is that I live on"? Not many. I should think that people everywhere else have the same attitude, take most things for granted, and focus on their personal lives. Maybe the first-generation settlers would have some feelings for the planet, but children born there have never known anything else, and for them it's "just the way things are", exactly the same as here on Earth.