Question: is everything set in a far-flung future where we've managed to do horrible things to the world considered a dystopia? Or do I just need "post-apocalyptic" as a shelf?

This reminded me (for obvious reasons) of [a:China Mieville]'s recent book, except that the authors were telling very different kinds of stories. This was far less of an homage to anything and more an interesting, bloody, clever and ultimately unsatisfying story.

My biggest issue with it was not the number of people who died along the narrative way, but the way that so many people died without acknowledgement from the book that these deaths were important while other people got the full appreciation for what loss of life meant. I could have dealt with either, I could even have handled some kind of logic of proximity to the main characters dictating meaningful deaths or even a couple of lines about why we could not dwell on everyone. For a book that was, overall, perspicacious in its explanation of people and emotions, this part really fell flat for me and make me like the book less.

But the idea of large, lumbering cities engages in "Municipal Darwinism" is delightful and I cannot fault Reeve's ingenuity. Still, this is a first book and I would like to know what happens next.