Destry, a member of a team dedicated to continuing the planet's transformation, uncovers Spider, a secret underground city founded by escaped slaves who chose not to go extinct 10,000 years ago.

In protest, the team recommends establishing a community of self-governing anti-gravity train people under Spider sovereignty as the best long-term solution for providing transport.

904 years later, Scrubjay, a member of the Flying Train Fleet worker co-op, befriends Moose, a homeless journalist cat, who is digging up dirt against Sask-E's monopoly landowner Emerald.

Scrubjay and Moose uncover ancient legal documents that prove Emerald defrauded real estate customers by charging license fees for public domain H. sapiens genome sequences.

Newitz was inspired to write The Terraformers after thinking about how fictional stories could carry messages relating to present-day environmental crises like climate change.

[5] A review by Mark Athitakis in the Los Angeles Times positively described the novel's optimistic message but criticized Newitz for what he viewed as cluttered prose.

[6] A starred review in Publishers Weekly praised the book, drawing comparisons between Newitz and fellow science-fiction writers Becky Chambers and Samuel R.