Reviews and Comments

Hard to put down. I was deep into plot and characters. The story is absurd, but that was what I needed.

As a fan of dystopia and speculative hard sci-fi, it was great to have a lighthearted read like this. I like history, but am not a history nerd. I thought Shakespeare was fine as a student, and I am an English professor, but I am not at all a Shakespeare nerd. History and Shakespeare are two main themes here and it didn't bother me one bit to learn some interesting tidbits along the way.

Sure, I wouldn't have read the first book in the series had Neal Stephenson not been the coauthor. I admit that. I am certainly glad that the story continued on here.

Hope to read another absurd story in this series someday.

What began as a story similar to others that I have read quickly transformed into an interesting read. As usual, Crouch's timing and pacing is great, as is the character development. I would have liked it to have been a little longer.

Overall, I prefer some of Crouch's other works.

Like the first book in the series, I had a good laugh and paused to think a few times. An excellent novella for a warm summer night that offers a peculiar perspective on some of our real world problems.

Qui sommes-nous ? Pourquoi sommes-nous là ? Où allons-nous ?

Ce n'est pas « Dessines-moi un mouton » et il n'y a pas de planète d'ivrogne, mais le concept est similaire. Un voyage à travers l'espace et le temps rempli de philosophie.

Fantastic to a point I did not expect. Very meta, and covers aspects that took me by surprise. I rarely read the descriptions of books written by authors that I have read before, and here it totally paid off. If you have read the previous two works by this author, you will like where this book takes you.

Well-written. Funny. Cute, even. The characters are wonderful, and I am looking forward to their continuing adventures.

Ever since Snow Crash, Stephenson has had me hooked. So, I can say only good things about this book. Great story, great characters, etc., etc.

I do feel that in a few years, we might (very strong might) find ourselves speaking about this book the same way we speak about the aforementioned work: as some sort of prophetic vision of the future and how we will come to deal with climate change.

I also have to say that the author sneaks in some current affairs. There are things mentioned that may require future readers to check Wikipedia, and there are a few nuanced opinions too.

I took off one star because I feel like the story wasn't quite ready to end and it all rapped up nest and tidy in the swiftest way possible.

I think this will be the book I recommend the most this year. It is entertaining from beginning to end. If you like sci-fi or space stories, read it. If you don't, read it anyway because you will laugh. It is very rare that I tear through a book in the span of a day, but, and I apologise for the cliché, I could not put this book down.

If I had finished this back when I started (2019) I would have lived it. Now, in 2021, a lot of what Newport talks about seems like common sense. Beyond the advice, the anecdotes of the digital minimalists that he encountered while preparing this book are à propos and well-chosen to highlight the underlying call to action: quit faffing around on your phone, stop with the constant Facebooking, put your phone down and do something else that keeps your hands busy or puts you in a social situation.

Unsurprisingly, this was excellent. I am happy that I took the time to digest this one instead of binging my way through it. Truly epic.