When I started out with this novel, I thought the description sounded to my liking, but after getting in about 30 pages through, I wasn't so sure. I am one for sci-fi and fantasy, but the world seemed so absurd...almost to the point of ridiculousness. But after I got to about page 50, I realized I was no longer wondering, "Should I continue reading this?" because I was actually getting into it...and liking it! The first thing I noticed was how high the diction was. A lot of the words are archaic, adding to the tone of the book. Some of the words are just weird. And some of the words are made up. Everything you could ask for in a sci-fi novel! The grammar was impeccable, and I absolutely love this writer's style. Even though I'm not typically interested in description pertaining to environment or place, it's almost impossible to understand sci-fi without understanding the world the characters are living in (or in this case, worlds?) A lot of the metaphors also caught me off guard, but in a good way. Most were so original that I literally had to sit there in a silence for a few moments to completely absorb what I had just read. Humor was integrated well into the stories, as well as sadness, and a feeling of nostalgia (at least, for me). My favorite character was "Tran so." Saying that, however, one of the only complaints I had with this novel was the added sexuality. I typically embrace sexuality when sexuality is due, but in this novel it just felt out of place and awkward, especially when I started looking up to Tran so as a sort of father-like figure. The only other complaint I would say I had with this book was that I didn't really like that we had to keep up with four different characters. It would be different if the chapters were shorter, or if the characters had more to do with each other, but it was definitely hard to keep track of what had just elapsed when changing from one character's POV to another.