A complete disappointment. Cardboard characters. Bad science. Politics galore. How did this win the Hugo? Worse, how did this win the Hugo and then people congratulated themselves on "Wow, we really got it right despite the whole infighting thing". 
 There is no storytelling. None of the characters have inner lives, motivation, or growth. The writing is stilted and stupid and wrong. The science is terrible. The faux-"mystery" driving the plot turns out to be entirely pointless and ridiculous. (view spoiler)[What would happen if aliens could stop human science from progressing any further? (hide spoiler)] 
 Unlike most of my one star reviews on Goodreads, this isn't just a one-star "I didn't particularly like it but the book was fine". This is full out "this book is crap and I hated it" one star. 
 I stuck it out to the end because I promised a friend I would.