Rift is about terraforming gone dreadfully wrong. The planet Lithia is rejecting the attempts of humans to change it into an earth-like paradise. The humans who live on the planet have forgotten almost all the science they knew, while a small group of humans occupy a space station orbiting the planet. One day the space station blows up, and everything changes.

Our hero, Reeve Calder, escapes the station and lands on the planet. He sets about trying to figure out why the station blew up, why Lithia is reverting, and how to fix everything. He is lucky enough to fall in with a couple of natives (Spar and Loon), so he doesn't die of exposure or starvation. However, the story meanders. The obvious romantic relationship takes too long to blossom (for no good reason), and Reeve doesn't seem like he's in much of a hurry to find answers to his questions. I liked the parts of the story that focused on Loon -- she holds the secret of Lithia and is developing a strange symbiosis with the planet. However, I never felt like that part of the story was well-integrated with the rest of the book, and the Reeve/Loon relationship just didn't work. I give the book a "0" because it is decent, but it is not nearly as good as Kenyon's other work.