First of all, I'd like to applaud Douglas for the jaw-dropping amount of cultural detail he weaves into Earthshine. Not only does he craft entire religions, political controversies, and class warfare for his fictional world, he also envisions dazzling architectural innovations and insightful new technologies for this brisk-paced, surprisingly immersive sci-fi novel. Thanks to the astounding depth of Douglas' worldbuilding and the surprising relevance of Genesia's political upheaval (can someone say "energy crisis"?), Earthshine somehow bridges the thirty-five million mile, six-hundred year gap between its Genesian protagonists and its readers back on Earth. The novel's characters, however, don't always share the setting's depth of development—. Although Earthshine's Martian city flaunts mile-high luxury apartments alongside subterranean slums, the novel's characters seldom enjoy similar complexity. Over the course of the novel. Douglas stuffs more characters and subplots into three hundred pages than a three-hundred page book could ever develop or resolve. That's not to say I didn't commiserate with Benni when her love life misfired or long for transhuman Shirro to finally get out of the hospital; I did, however, wish Douglas had shown the reader some vital scenes instead of glossing over them. If you're the kind of person who can't stay in a relationship for more than two weeks, Earthshine is the book for you: the intricate blend of subplots and character arcs quickens the pace while guaranteeing you won't tire of any one character. Don't read Earthshine expecting characters so deep you need a submarine to understand them, but if you're looking for fun, action, and sci-fi wizardry, Chad Douglas has got you covered.
