This book was on the sale shelf at the library. I've never read the author before. I'm not even sure I realized it was classified as sci-fi until I was mostly done reading the book.

I still feel like there's more to the book than what I got out of it so far. The plot centers on GMOs. Are GMOs good or bad? Or is that a question that depends on the tools and circumstances? As the book says, a hammer can be used to build or to destroy. The premise seems to be that corporations took over GMOs as a for profit endeavor and therefore did not have the world's safety as the primary goal--a goal that smaller farms using GMOs could place over gigantic profits. ( )

Story: 4.0 / 10
Characters: 6.5
Setting: 8.5
Prose: 7.5 ( )

Every organization needs a signature color, Eric Kitson had said, among his other stupid utterances. "Blues" are cops. "Reds" are Communists, unless you live in Boston, where they're a baseball team. ( )

That this story wound up on top of my TBR pile was due to it being picked by my book group, seeing as Kress is going to be a guest of honor at the forthcoming World Con in Washington. Keeping in mind that I respect seriousness of purpose that the author brings to her work, and her incorporation of adult women as characters, my overall impression is this work is simply too short to support the story being told. That I really didn't buy the conspiracy in play also didn't help; it was very 1970s "Analog." Better luck next time. ( )

In a world that turned against GMOs after one went very wrong and killed a lot of kids, a woman who lost her own young son to a different biological disaster—one that was enhanced by global warming—works for a secret organization that tries to do GMOs better, without capitalist distortions and designed to feed a warming and desertifying world. There are mobile houses and retinal scans and pervasive government surveillance. And the only thing that really didn’t work for me was the relatively hopeful ending relying on “the truth getting out.” Kress tried to deal with the phenomenon of pervasive online misinformation, but ultimately ended up handwaving too much for my currently very pessimistic take on our likely future. Also non-explicit discussions of sexual assault, including of a child. ( )