Someone posted on RPGnet about how 13 worlds seems like a small, limited setting. Of course, that person had obviously not read the book, or spent any time considering the background.

That said... in a way, the 13 worlds are meant to feel expansive and huge at the start, and to start to feel tight and claustrophobic as characters become more powerful and well-traveled. By the time a character is starting to get to Distance 11 or 12, the current Nearside might well start to feel limiting and old-hat. This is, potentially, an important part of any "late game" play, as characters prepare themselves to potentially survive Convergence and be a part of the next iteration of the Nearside.

If anything that Monarch says is true, of course.