The grumpy two star reviews here compel me to give this five stars. It probably is a high four. But it's absolutely one of the top books worth reading from its year, and has so many amazing and urgently relevant ideas it deserves your attention.
I understand the complaints about the exerpts but I found them lyrical and compelling. I wished I could read the book the protagonist wrote.
Far better than a debut has any right to be, I'm happy to read someone working in the domains of Ted Chiang, Michael Crichton, Ursula LeGuin -- where angels fear to tread.
