Reviews

After a great opening that should have been its own book (it has almost nothing to do with the rest of the story), it descends into a kind of Kafkaesque burlesque on John le Carré. At times very funny, perpetually inventive, but it could just as easily have been a short story with all the fat trimmed. By the halfway mark I felt like the book could have stopped at any time and it wouldn't have made any difference. Then again, maybe that was the idea.

olapielakx's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

peebee's review against another edition

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4.0

It's very weird that it starts out about (and the coverleaf is 80% devoted to) a plague on paper, that eliminates humanity's ability to communicate information, leads to a breakdown in society, a vicious dark age, and new renaissance once humanity triumphs, all of which would be fine on their own for a book.
And then on like page ten it says 'here is the only bit of paper that has survived' and the story abruptly shifts to a post-capitalist bunker where the remnants of the American Military Industrial complex have sealed themselves and what remains of US capitalism into a mountain and devolved into the Dulles Brothers John Birch paranoid feverdream that America has always promised it's citizens it would become.
But the paper thing? Never comes up again, not even in an epilogue.

corpotrash's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

bllowns's review against another edition

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challenging funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

saadr's review against another edition

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challenging

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

barbtrek's review against another edition

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3.0

I love Stanislaw Lem but sometimes it is just too much. This was craziness upon craziness upon craziness. I ended up getting lost and confused. But even when I was lost and confused I enjoyed the clever writing.

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