4-. I liked this better than anything else I've read by this author.

I thought the alternate history in which this story takes place was well done. Hardest suspension of disbelief was "hive creatures have no consciousness". ( )

As a long-time fan of RCW, this was a major disappointment. The story is one-dimensional and there are no big surprises. None of the characters were exactly interesting. This whole thing was just bland. ( )

To this date, I have never not enjoyed a novel by Robert Charles Wilson. This one included.

Adventure, science-based theorizing turned into (in this case horrific) reality. This is an alternate history Earth. One where, in the late 1800s when humanity first began exploring radio, we found an atmospheric layer (near the outer extreme of the atmosphere) which propagates radio-waves, thus facilitating global communications. Some technologies move faster than in our reality, some slower. By default, all transmissions are routed through this layer.

But eventually, in the early 21st century, a varied group of scientists began to realize that this Propagative Layer was sentient. And it was manipulating the communications (video, audio, textual) being sent through it, editing a word or inflection here, a fractional-second of video there, for the purpose of altering human behaviour. As a result we have a century of "relative peace", what amounts to a global nanny state, which we are unaware of.

But some research is shunted aside, dismissed, unfunded. Some people find themselves out of jobs. Then, one day, a group of these in-the-know scientists are murdered in one day, around the globe. And even worse, the attackers are human simulacra, guided by the Propagative Layer. Human in all identifiable respects, expect that if mortally wounded, they bleed green as well as red.

That's when a small group of survivors go into hiding. And plan. Because a way to defeat this alien invasion must be found, WILL be found... eventually.

Of course, this book is that eventuality. And, of course, things are not what they seem. Horrifying not what they seem.

I'm impressed that I still enjoyed the entire experience, even though I simply could not buy into the book's central conceit about the aliens. Normally, this would have prevented me from even finishing another author's book. Bravo, again, Mr. Wilson. ( )

Bo-ring.
Just not enough for me: not enough world building, writing not slick enough, characters not relatable enough. There were hints at a really cool idea and some interesting moral qualms, but it didn't get tackled right so I was bored. ( )

It is hard to believe that this is by the author of the fantastic [b:Spin|910863|Spin (Spin, #1)|Robert Charles Wilson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1406383726s/910863.jpg|47562] saga. It is full of action yet is monotonous and feels like it was written as a movie. Ideas and information are repeated frequently as if Wilson thought we wouldn't remember from chapter to chapter. The alien threat is interesting but not well thought out. It is able to edit Earth's radio and television broadcasts to keep us peaceful but the "experts" in the story keep insisting that it has no real intelligence. How, then, does that work? I would have preferred to find out more about the hypercolony than spend time with the dull human characters. Basically just a lot of running round. ( )