I guess I have a hard time reading Elizabeth Bear. I didn't have this problem with the Hammered series, but it took me several days to get through Dust and now Undertow.

Which isn't exactly a condemnation, it just means I read dense prose very slowly. Things I like about Bear's books (and which will keep me coming back) are characterization and awesome ideas. Undertow features a society that I think will evolve if humans live that far into the future. Her version of matter transmission is also completely believable.

But...the same old same old gripe from me. The characters' speech was sometimes too cryptic, or the action too cryptic (although not the deftly done action sequence at the end where she has to include the action in all possible worlds, excellent) that I was sometimes only vaguely aware of what was going on, or why a character reacted a certain way.

Anyway, still recommended.