Aneel reviewed The Oxford Brotherhood by Guillermo Martínez
Depressing, compelling, uplifting
4 stars
Content warning Reveals my takeaway
Masterfully constructed, like Cloud Atlas or Use of Weapons. Utterly willing to kill off characters just as they're getting interesting (I put the book down after it killed one off just a handful of pages after she was introduced, but picked it up again).
After reading How Infrastructure Works, which has the message "We have the tools we need to build sustainable infrastructure for everyone", this book seemed to reply "Yeah, but we won't", but also "But that's okay. We're not so special. Life will go on after we kill ourselves as part of the Sixth Extinction."
Will there be another race
To come along and take over for us?
Maybe martians could do better than we've done.
We'll make great pets!
My friend says we're like the dinosaurs
Only we are doing ourselves in
Much faster than they
Ever did.
We'll make great pets!
— Porno For Pyros, Pets
