Denver Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club

This novel is a bit of a mess, far below the standard of other Elizabeth Bear works I've read.  I like the concept of combining Norse mythology with a far future SFnal setting, but Bear fails to pull either off.  She didn't give me any sense of the essence of Norse mythology, and her future world is a vague blur, with no effective explanation of how this society works or who lives there -- it all feels like a movie set of unconvincing facades painted over with a random mishmash of fantasy and SF elements, which never combine in any interesting way.  Worst of all, the characters are cut from the same cardboard.  I had no sense of what was motivating any of them or why I should care what happened to them.  Still, I won't give up on Elizabeth Bear, because I know she can do a great deal better.