I wanted to give modern sci-fi a proper go and where better to start than the book that won every single sci-fi book award? I was pretty disappointed and a bit baffled by the wide praise it’s received.

The book has some grand ideas about individual vs. collective identity and a society where gender is ambiguous. However, these ideas aren’t really taken anywhere interesting or challenging and it just feels like there’s no follow-through. All that might be OK if the plot was engaging and the characters engrossing. I found the dialogue unbelievable and the characters two-dimensional.

I’ll not give up on trying modern sci-fi just yet, but I’ve certainly not been converted to it.