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This is my third attempt to read this book. I loved the Name of the Rose and the premise of this book is nice. However, the first few chapters are poorly written semi-scientific gibberish with a few references to certain characters. As people apparently love this book, I decided to give it another attempt.

Novels by Bagley or McLean are a bit of a guilty pleasure to me. This one was particularly good. Yes, the characters are pretty black and white and the story was formulaic, but it was executed quite well.

This book is about 15 years old at the time of this writing. The message is still as relevant and as poignant as it was at the time of publishing. As much as I applaud mr. Doctorow for this, it also makes me sad.

When my children grow a bit older, I will have them read this book.

As other reviews stated, this book is in the style of Douglas Adams. The main idea was what convinced me to read this book, but the story was a bit light. The chapters switched between story and background and the background chapters felt like they were written to be as wordy as possible for the sake to be as wordy as possible, a bit like this sentence. Also, the end was a bit too much Deus Ex Machina, which as a bit meh compared to the buildup.

I did enjoy the story for all its imperfections, but would not be quick to recommend it to others.