Nothing short of diamond coating can make this piece of astrophysics, speculative sociology and hypothetical economics any harder. I mean, I got through Tau Zero and whatever Stephen Hawking has written, but this one pretty much lost me at the point where a guy utilizes the mechanics of time dilation for his legislative scheme of extorting money from the electronic copy of his dead mother (who is the protagonist) and then transfers his consciousness to a flock of pigeons.
Still a very fascinating read, but be prepared to be lost a lot. Highly recommended for fans of Hannu Rajaniemi; both of these guys come from the school of “wtf, how many PhD’s do I need to get this shit”.
| Positive: | Negative: |
| Entertaining, sarcastic tone | Extremely hard to follow |
| Fascinating, rock-solid futuristic setting (21-24 centuries? No one can even tell due to time dilation mess xD) |
Present tense narration makes it even harder to follow!
|
| Profound knowledge of astrophysics, sociology and economics |
Characters aren’t that interesting
|
| Extremely thought-provoking on sociological implications of advancing technology |
The only really interesting thing about the narrative is figuring out wtf is going on
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| Seriously, how many degrees does this guy have…? |
Visual novel & other stuff impressions 