brookeworm88's review against another edition
3.0
Didn't know of these two historical figures in mathematics but enjoyed learning more about their lives through this semi historical fictionalization that interweaves Turing's and Godel's stories and shows interesting correlations though they never met
ipollock009's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
charliekjg86's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
mazza57's review
1.0
this was such a difficult book to read. The best parts being the descriptions of how illnesses and injuries affected body structure and physiology. I know no more about Turing and Godel now than i did before. Have a perception of how the author thought their lives and characters developed. Don't understand how these books get 4 and 5 stars
anywiebs's review against another edition
3.0
Even thoug hI was surprised to find that I bought a book about mathmaticians, I liked reading about these two geniuses and their crazy behavior. It wasn't an easy or fast read, but it got me thinking at times. And I do like that every now and again.
starrysea98's review against another edition
2.0
a moment of silence for the absolute loss of what could have been a brilliant, beautiful story.
first of all, i think the concept is great. what i know of alan turing is from the imitation game (2014) and what i know of kurt godel is non-existent. i don’t know what the correlation between turing and godel is but hey, that’s why i picked this book up, right?
wrong.
only after a quick google search and puzzling my way through godel’s proof of his first theorem do i see their connection, something that should have been, at the very least, touched on in this book that claims to explore the connection between these two great people.
which brings me to my second point. i don’t know why on earth the author decided to write a piece of historical fiction when it seems like their style would be better suited to poetry. every few pages, the reader is treated to paragraphs of purple prose that barely make sense. at a certain point, i just stopped reading to understand and began reading to finish (i really didn’t want to DNF this book). i could have forgiven that if characterisation was done better but i came out of the book with as much superficial attachment to both these people as when i went in.
(not to mention the random bits dedicated to random people eg. moritz and then never mentioned again. what’s up with that?)
also the handful of chapters that was told from a mysterious ‘i’ - the author themselves? i don’t know and don’t understand why those were included when they served to further disconnect the reader from the lives of turing and godel.
AND ANOTHER THING. the shifting of tenses grated on me. one moment, i would be happily reading in past tense and then the next moment, it would have shifted to present tense. it happened continuously throughout the book and irritated me so. i don’t care if it was supposed to be a literary device or just plain ol’ laziness on behalf of the author and editor but UGH. i took off one star for that.
first of all, i think the concept is great. what i know of alan turing is from the imitation game (2014) and what i know of kurt godel is non-existent. i don’t know what the correlation between turing and godel is but hey, that’s why i picked this book up, right?
wrong.
only after a quick google search and puzzling my way through godel’s proof of his first theorem do i see their connection, something that should have been, at the very least, touched on in this book that claims to explore the connection between these two great people.
which brings me to my second point. i don’t know why on earth the author decided to write a piece of historical fiction when it seems like their style would be better suited to poetry. every few pages, the reader is treated to paragraphs of purple prose that barely make sense. at a certain point, i just stopped reading to understand and began reading to finish (i really didn’t want to DNF this book). i could have forgiven that if characterisation was done better but i came out of the book with as much superficial attachment to both these people as when i went in.
(not to mention the random bits dedicated to random people eg. moritz and then never mentioned again. what’s up with that?)
also the handful of chapters that was told from a mysterious ‘i’ - the author themselves? i don’t know and don’t understand why those were included when they served to further disconnect the reader from the lives of turing and godel.
AND ANOTHER THING. the shifting of tenses grated on me. one moment, i would be happily reading in past tense and then the next moment, it would have shifted to present tense. it happened continuously throughout the book and irritated me so. i don’t care if it was supposed to be a literary device or just plain ol’ laziness on behalf of the author and editor but UGH. i took off one star for that.
runkefer's review against another edition
3.0
These were interesting character studies, but I'm not sure I would call it a novel. There was a distinct lack of plot. The only arc was the course of the two lives.
seedwa's review
Absolute pretentious drivel - poor writing and over philosophising, not to mention descriptions of illness based on discriminatory deficit models. A core text on how fictionalising real people can be deeply unethical.
nocto's review against another edition
3.0
Declaring literary blogging bankruptcy as I'm now eight months behind on logging books read and I would like to get back into the swing of things without dropping further behind!