The Terraformers is a great idea: it follows three generations of beings created to terraform a planet so that it can become marketable by their capitalist overlords. But it doesn’t all work.

The second segment is bogged down in an entirely new cast of characters, most of whom become impossible to contextualise (you may remember what gender they are or aren’t, but if you do you might struggle to recall whether they’re one of the book’s multiple flavours of humanoids, or an animal hybrid, or a literal door, or a drone, or … etc). The third segment, about a journalist cat who falls in love with a flying train (it makes sense on the page), mainly chronicles seismic events as they happen largely off the page.

With fascinating ideas that don’t cohere and a mid-section that mostly disappears into its own world-building cul-de-sac, The Terraformers will ensnare a good few imaginations but will almost certainly feel like more of a chore than a book to other well-meaning readers.