So. Society is very clearly and very strictly broken into three (literal) tiers in a city built by (you guessed it) a city-making machine. On the lowest level are the folks who run the factories, the middle one you've got technicians and managers and up top are folks who seem to just do fancy stuff and think a lot.We have a Hero and he is not only a Riser, having worked and proven himself to move up (again, literally) in the world, but he's the last person who can read the old written language, being all descended from folks who did that. He's got a True Love and there is a Resistance and all sorts of double and triple crossing.And yet, the book isn't that rote. The characters are enjoyable, the ideas are interesting and it's a good entry into it's era of sf. ( )