This book is primarily a socio-political commentary. The author has compiled all of the popular pseudo-issues of our day (police and justice system brutality, systemic racism, oppression of LGBT, etc.) and transposed them to be the defining issues of all sentient beings in the universe (human or alien). The author’s solution? What she calls “Right Minding” — the manipulation and regulation of every person’s emotional and mental state by implanted devices. The purpose of the device is to overcome every person’s negative “atavistic” tendencies. The message being that all humans are incapable of being decent, compassionate, and caring individuals (and therefore positive members of society) without constant monitoring and adjustment by an Orwellian device. And Elizabeth Bear promotes this as a *good* idea! Setting the retrogressive social-engineering ideas aside, I determined to enjoy the book for the story’s sake. Unfortunately, the writing leaves a lot to be desired (though it is not quite as bad as the social agenda). The characters are wooden. The technology is often misunderstood or ignored. Worse, Bear lacks the ability to create a universe in which events unfold and feel natural instead of forced and contrived. I recommend passing on this book in particular and this author in general.