The Waste Tide

This was an interesting read - my first experience of Chinese sci-fi. The core themes of class oppression and impending environmental disaster are well realized. In many ways this book is very apt for our times. The underlying guilt of some of the main characters is quite poignant.

However, this book does suffer from a very uneven pacing and structure. The first half is incredibly slow. There is an overuse of technical details (there is a tendency to use overly complex technical descriptions of the brain or machines) which bog down the story in a strange mechanical way. The timeline jumps around a bit when moving between characters in a somewhat jarring way. The characters themselves are a bit stiff and mechanical. As this is a translation I do wonder how much of this is due to the fact it wasn't originally written in English. However, the underlying theme and strangeness help to breathe life into the story that is just the right side of believable as a near future dystopia.