Dseid, I certainly got that sense. I mean
Are we really supposed to have any sympathy for parents who would do that to a kid and are we supposed to get engaged with the new life they are making for themselves?
As everyone else said, it wasn’t very Pratchett-y. The “elves” kinda resembled the elves from Lords and Ladies, but other than that it seemed run-of-the-mill random Sci-Fi.
I love Pratchett, and collect every book of his that I can find. I’ve also got a serious love of hard sci-fi, and Baxter has written some great ones (Raft, The Timeships, Evolution, the Manifold series), and so I collect as many of his books I can find, as well. My favorite genre is alternate history/parallel worlds subgenre. Two of my favorite authors collaborating on my favorite genre? Sign me up!
Except… it really didn’t work. I bought the book the day it came out, and read it over a week. And now, a month later, I can’t remember much of anything about it. There were some brilliant bits, but for the most part, it was completely forgettable. I don’t even know what the entire *point *of the story was.
Bump 'cause I’ve finally read this, and I can say it worked for me, but is clearly the setup for a series.
And for those who didn’t see a lot of Pratchett in it, I kind of disagree. Even just from an overall plot point A world-spanning intelligent ocean/slug thingummy is classic DSotS stuff.