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The basic premise seems to be that the Arabs and the Turks didn't know anything about Western culture, and weren't interested in learning anything about infidels. They borrowed the weapons after they got their asses handed to them, and then after they still had their arses kicked, they borrowed the Western organization and bureaucracies that came with it. Then they still got their arses kicked, because they didn't do any science themselves and didn't and couldn't keep up with the West (again, because they didn't know enough about Western culture.)
Not only that, the very idea of knowing Western culture was and is inimical to the very idea of Islam (as practiced, anyway). When these guys are by definition unbelievers and inferior, it's a real kick in the teeth to have to have to borrow anything from them. The biggest problem was not that they couldn't borrow the technology or the ideas... it's that the people they sent out to the West to steal the forbidden fruit would come back with ideas that were... not Islamic. In fact, the infected diplomats and emigrants were more of a problem than the West -- the West was out there, but it was a thing apart, and defined as 'enemy'. But any people coming back from the West would be talking heresy from top to bottom, from Women's rights, to the lack of slavery, to the separation of Church and State.

I was surprised by how much I didn't care about this book. It's similar to Wool in some ways -- strong plot, lots of flying around and jumping up and down and running from bad guys in a tight resource constrained environment... but everyone (bar the Viridians) are so HUMAN. So American, even. You could almost believe they're in a small town in the midwest, what with "Joe Spud" and the hard scrabble life.

This is what lets down the story -- these guys have nanotech. They have nanocameras watching their every move for the sake of a reality TV show. They have a reputation based management system. And yet... it's still not even half as good at reality shear as Bruce Sterling on his worst day. It reads like a soap opera. And the intrepid group of 17 year olds who always find themselves in the middle of the action for no good reason doesn't help.

It's alright. The story of "two men travelling to a world where women rule" has been done in several different novels, but by making the two men a gay couple it blessedly takes the innuendo out and leaves the blunt reality of sexism and discrimination in place.

There are several concepts in here that aren't really developed. The Governers, the AI that exists to keep a lid on the human population, for example: even if they're a great idea, a society under that kind of pressure would be absolutely terrified right up until the age of majority. Vincent and Michelangelo are far too normal for people who would grow up expecting to die.

Likewise, the rebels and revolutions on New Amazonia don't seem to have real force and personality. They exist, and they're ready to kill... but the sense of anger isn't there, even among people who have justifiable complaints. And I don't believe Lesa, the head of the Security Directorate, can be quite so friendly and open when she and her team are responsible for combatting them.

Overall, in as much as I like the book, I'm not really wowed by it.