Helliconia

UGH. I did not enjoy this book very much at all.

It's one of those sprawling epics that traces the development of civilization from basic hunter-gatherer tribes up to rudimentary trader society. It's very boring.

My original complaint was that the author doesn't describe anything, but that's not true. He does describe a lot of things, but not many things that I am interested in or care about. So, it reads as very flat and dull. The characters are interesting, but the dialogue is stilted and lame. Their inner lives are rather simplistic.

It's clearly setting up for some bigger, galaxy-spanning story, but because this book was so boring, I am not interested in finding out what happens in the next two books.