This book is dated with reference to smoking a whole lot, (indoors!), heavy drinking as a normal way to pass the evening, light drinking on the job, women portrayed as secondary to to men, can't call someone because phone lines have not been laid out that far yet, sitting at the typewriter.

I did not like the writing, or flow of text, and maybe the way sentences were structured. This was not an easy comfortable read. It should be noted, however, that this story was written in Russian and later translated to English. Proper flow and deeper meanings, even references, may have been lost in translation.

So, that's two strikes against, then why three stars?

Originality.
These guys, brothers, came up with some really cool relics. The story is told, not from the normal scientist view, but from your average working class man. The deeper meanings, if you see them, leave room for your own personal interpretation.

Reasonably quick read but even so, I would recommend passing this for something better as we all seem to have less and less time for reading.