On Oranios, Proctor and his companions learn that a group of conspirators including billionaire Otto Winspear decided to keep the simulation when the ship arrived at Caelus.

He admits that he created the economic division between Prosperans and Annex workers so that the colonists would have a motive to eventually leave the simulation.

Walton notes that even the descriptions of class conflict in the novel are reflected in parent-child relationships; the upper-class Prosperans adopt teenagers, but the lower-class Annex workers are able to give birth naturally.

The review states that every parent-child relationship in the novel is eventually lost, and that "the emotional weight of enduring the loss of a parent or child weaves through every chapter of this novel".

[1] According to Chelsea Leu of the New York Times, Cronin references The Tempest repeatedly, including motifs of "freak storms," the concept of enchanted islands, and the archipelago's namesake, Prospero.

Just as Shakespeare's Prospero was the puppet-master of his own enchanted island, Cronin uses the idea of "the Designed" to explore a "meta-commentary on the creative act itself".

In contrast, Cronin writes that slow-moving catastrophes such as pandemics and climate change are in "some ways harder to defend against because you can ignore them for a really, really long time".

Cronin further commented that he drew inspiration from Elon Musk and his private space program, as well as income inequality and late-stage capitalism, when thinking about the ideas that became The Ferryman.

The review praised Proctor's characterization and the "authentically surprising" plot twists, calling the novel "another excellent offering from an author with a boundless imagination and talent to spare.

This review praised the novel's style, writing that Cronin "established the foundations for what appears to be a classic dystopian tale" but that the plot twists "[push] it into the realm of provocative conceptual science fiction".

The same review noted that the reality of the final third of the book "is not always clearly rendered on the page, and the plot twists on itself a couple of times with a few weird or diversionary scenes".

[6] Writing for the New York Journal of Books, David Walton praised Cronin's prose and characterization, while calling the ending "lackluster" and "disappointing after the long setup".

[1] A review in the New York Times wrote that the story was engrossing and entertaining, but ultimately called it "an anodyne, occasionally beautiful diversion".

[2] A review for the Washington Post praised the worldbuilding of the first half of the novel, but felt that the "topsy-turvy thriller is torn apart by the unsustainable imbalance between its profound intentions and its ultimately silly execution".