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Don't know why it took me so long to read this one; I think at first I was waiting for it to come out in paperback, and then by the time it did I'd forgotten about it. Good solid ultratech SF; unlike some books that I could name in this genre, it doesn't spend the great majority of the time in primitive venues smelling of blood and a lack of modern plumbing.
It does spend most of the time in a slightly less extreme backwater, in a repressive society that has outlawed most of the wild tech that makes other (more briefly treated) parts of the galaxy so much more interesting. But then it shows us (some of) what happens when that outlawed technology suddenly arrives in force, dropped from the sky by a fascinating alien civilization that's just sort of passing through. And that's great fun.
Recommended for fans of Vinge, Sterling, Williams, and that crew; and for anyone else (you never know).
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