I'm with everyone who said it was SF and not fantasy. I understand the author's POV, but I disagree with it.
The reading was average, but I think the reader tried too hard to be optimisic. I'd like to hear him read a story that isn't rife with optimism, see how he does with it.
No more guest intros please, and if there are any, make sure the introducer has professional (or at least semi-professional) audio equipment. It sounded like Coates was talking through a cheap computer microphone and a Skype connection. Also, the intro went on WAY too long; I was listening to this on the way to lunch and it was STILL going when I pulled into the restaurant parking lot. Didn't really interest me at all.
As for the story itself...
Tom Piper as the main character who is defined by the people around him just didn't work for me. Very few of the characters ever came back, and in the beginning, I honestly thought the story was about Anthony, That would've been more interesting to me. Tom Piper was a cookie-cutter character who is, rather predictably, affected by a major event and changes his mind.
I felt cheated by the way the author introduced all these interesting characters but kept making the story about Tom. I wanted to know more about Anthony, and Giovanni's train experiments, and the babe who measured the roofs. Why would she go to a relatively-depressed area to open a ceramics shop? Didn't care so much about the teacher or the family who bought her cake.
I think that was part of the underlying problem for me: the author meandered around. The story felt loose, like a dress that needs to be taken in for a better fit.
Pretty sure the ending -- where he goes to Mars sometime in the future, ostensibly -- reminded me of the American ending of Evangelion. "Congratulations! Congratulations! Congratulations!" (et al)
I understood what the author was trying to do, but I don't think he did it very successfully. So this one gets a less-than-meh from me -- usually, for me, a "meh" means I appreciated the art and craft but didn't like the story; this one, I didn't really think the craft was up to par.