I hope someone optioned this. Brin is a very strong scifi author.
2015-05-15: I finally read this. I’d give it 3.5 stars. The story is compelling, the thing that grates (a lot) are the constant sermons from Brin. He’s not wrong, i just find the way he makes his arguments to be really tedious (you can get a sample from his website), it is full of “I told you so” and “I wrote about this x years ago”. The constant self-slapping on the back really detracts.