Like another reviewer has already observed, I too wish I'd read this before the Southern Reach trilogy - but what's done is done -

This story in some ways made me just hum "what a long strange trip it's been" over and over, while at other times maybe I'd just shake my head at how impenetrable some of the plot devices and characters are - but never does this story let you feel very at home & that is what marks it as true science fiction for me - the reader is forced here to inhabit a foreign (post pseudo contact) world but will never be comfortable there !