From a 2006 review of the trilogy, https://jetpress.org/volume15/latorra.pdf https://jetpress.org/volume15/latorra.pdf > These books are that most rare combina

From a 2006 review of the trilogy, https://jetpress.org/volume15/latorra.pdf https://jetpress.org/volume15/latorra.pdf > These books are that most rare combination of riveting story-telling and deep thinking on issues of personal identity, cultural diversity, economics, politics, artificial intelligence and evolution, all served up in polished prose of unusually elegant style and wit. > … The Golden Oecumene has no real government. It has a legal system of sophotech judges, and a popular assembly called the College of Hortators. The College debates issues and makes decrees that are only enforced by moral suasion. This turns out to be as effective as any legislation in an earlier age, because to flout a decree of the College of Hortators is to risk being censured and shunned. Shunning is an age-old practice … In the far future of the Golden Oecumene, shunning is even more effective because it is implemented through sense filtering. The shunned person is not merely ignored; he is literally invisible.