Robinson seems to be at his best when he sticks to writing about stuff he knows. Luckily, much like the story’s protagonist, Robinson knows a lot about a lot. for the science involved, it isn’t heavy handed and boring to get through, it isnt overly complicated and at the same time isn’t watered down for the month breathers. He also seems to have a solid grasp on politics (but the interesting aspects of it, like historical and geopolitics) and military, though as a scientist I only know what I remember from long nights of getting lost in Wikipedia.
As for the fantastical elements of the story, he always has a way of uniquely dragging them off the beaten path. The Apocalypse Machine didn’t go straight to a major metropolis to kill. Robinson took him on strategic journey through locales that you can tell weren’t picked for their potential marketability. through the eyes of one chapter characters you get the idea of the place, but more than that you understand the characters connection. this is always done in his books so well by treating those characters with respect (not with mercy, though. never with Mercy). since these characters have lived full lives before the snippet you see through their chapter, they don’t feel a need to insert unnatural exposition into their thoughts and actions. To me that’s important. it what sells me the most on the realism I feel when reading his stories (Maybe not Space Force, but come on, fun can just be fun sometimes).
As for the Narrator? if I was put under some curse where I could only hear one word over and over again for the rest of my life but I still got to choose it, it would be Jeffrey Kafer saying “Bardarbunga.”. But, of course, then it wouldn’t be a curse at all.