Egan seemlessly weaves biology, genetics, physics, and artificial intelligence to create an extremely believable near-future tale. Like his other works, this one displays a near-spiritual reverence for the scientific method. I would tend to call this "hard sci-fi" because of the extremely heavy role of science in the story, but Egan is pretty good at giving it a human touch with compelling characters, an engaging story, and vivid descriptions. The result is that it doesn't feel much like hard sci-fi to me.

Also of interest is the central role of Stateless, a genetically engineered, anarcho-libertarian island. The politics of its interactions with the rest of the world are as believable and enjoyable as the science.