Rating: 5 out of 5

I bought this after seeing Robert talk at the “Unbound meets Catalyst Club” event as part of the 2013 Brighton Festival. The way he described the sequel made me interested in reading this book. I’ve since registered as a subscriber of the next book News From the Squares.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I was engrossed in the world he describes and I love the near-future-ness of the technology he describes. As he said in his talk, it’s all possible, nothing is conjured up, some of it is stretched to logical (or otherwise) conclusions but nothing is invented by him I’m currently also reading Shaping Things by Bruce Sterling and find this book gives me a better framework to read Shaping Things from. Which is odd. But something about Gardenia has captured my imagination. It’s been a while since I found myself comparing a fictional world with my world. I like it. More please.

Originally posted to my Goodreads account