Short review: They had too much fun writing the book.
Longer review: In the very near future, thanks to falling CO2 levels and a reduction in solar output, glaciers are moving south through the northern states again. Humanity is split between the Earthbound (ferociously antitechnological) and the few doomed "angels" living in kludged-up habitats in orbit. Alex and Gorden, sent on one of the necessary nitrogen-scooping missions (things leak), are shot down to land on a glacier. The space colony is in surreptitious contact with some technophiles, who come to rescue the duo.
The technophiles are mostly science fiction fans. As I said, the authors had too much fun writing this. They threw in boat-loads of references to science fiction books, writers, movies, and fans. Some of this you can justify by the story and the need to have identification codes, but it gets distracting; not to mention incestuous.
The governments are controlled by Greens, and new agers and fundamentalists have made common cause against the teaching of science. (I gather that the authors have no personal acquaintance with Christian fundamentalists: a less likely alliance is hard to imagine.) The authors worked hard to keep the description of the Greens from becoming polemical. And the book isn't a polemic, but only because its view of the Greens (part of the extreme technophobic movement) is pretty accurate.
In a very nice touch, the book has been available online. I don't read books online at work, and there's a lot of contention for the dialup line at home, so I picked this up at the bookstore.
Rainbow Mars had the same problem as this: a nice premise and a decent plot cluttered with too many outside references. I can't really recommend either book.
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