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Read this book several years ago. It's an okay book, but highly derivative of early Alan Dean Foster. The ecology review is better, but the aliens are really "just like us" only "living in harmony with their environment" which at this point puts it between Avatar, Ferngully and Dances With Wolves as the most overused plot point ever.

Incredibly obscure book, tracked down and read because it was an incredibly obscure book. Sadly, it's about as readable as the Worm Ouroborus. Leaving aside the style and aversion to using proper nouns, it's incredibly frustrating to read because it jumps around so much.

There is no exposition, repeat, no exposition. There are no periods where the characters discuss their options, or even work out where they are and what they're doing there. It's simply assumed that you know how this world works, and no attempt is made to explain it to you.

That's great on one level, because it's exciting and they're moving and everyone seems very decisive and intelligent. It's only when you put the book down that you realize you have no idea what just happened, except that it was fast and there was a lot of it.

The funniest part about this book is Atrus going through another writer's book and picking out various kludges and hacks that have been added to the book to try and fix issues that came out of an inelegant structure. This is a clear analogy to computer programming, but applied to a "real" world, and it works surprisingly well.

It's a well intentioned book, but it's more of a pulling together of several different techniques and strategies... all from books that I've already read. With that in mind, I can't give it a very high rating.