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I think this is a refreshing book.
Obviously the author is an idealist but he bases his writing on copious research. Even for left leaning people some of the research outcomes could be quite counter-intuitive and that is great. We should challenge the things we think we know, especially when it comes to human nature. Too often our "knowledge" about human nature takes the form of prejudice and that must be challenged.
The book does present a radically different way of thinking about the economy and, more specifically, social safety nets.
What I'm missing a bit is the "How We Can Get There" part. In the light of current political developments where many countries swing more right and neo-conservative (not to say fascist), his way of thinking is a very hard sell. Especially since facts don't seem to matter anymore. So, I would've liked to see more ideas about how to win that uphill battle.
However, if you want to challenge yourself and learn something, pick this up!

I loved the way the author found new angles to concepts to create a truly original story.
The Apocalyps, men of the past transported to current times and evil cabals have all been done before but never did I see them fit together in exactly this way.
The main themes of the book are about as subtly presented as a kick to the head by a mule. Nobody will wonder what the author had to say after reading the book. Which is not bad. If ou have something to say, say it. There is a subtler layer underneath though, to keep things interesting. It is clear the writer has a deeper knowledge about Arthurian legends, for example.
The tone of voice of the book is more Pratchett than Patterson, despite all the blood and violence, which works well in this case. A minor critique was that the pacing didn't fully work for me. In the first pages I was like "Wow, interesting!" but then the story slowed down quite a bit. However, if you stick with it, you'll get a great pay-off in the form of a climactic and emotional ending.

This book was written as an excuse to keep messing up the earth. It starts with the writer establishing his bona fides, which can be summarized as "I worked in the Obama administration". He worked in the oil industry before, which he does mentions briefly to be fair. He is certainly not shilling for the oil companies though, the thought is ridiculous! According to Steven at least. Next up: The writer admits Global Warming (GW) exists and it is caused by burning fossil fuels. So, we're off to a good start I guess. After establishing that and showing some evidence to support it he posits: Did you know that climate scientists don't know everything there is to know about climate? They even admit it 'confidentially'! So, Steven seems to think that is enough reason to not fix it, despite he himself admitting that GW exists. (more on this later) After building up this strawman (no scientist ever said he fully understands the climate) he spends a large part of the book juggling statistics to show that most of the weather phenomena quoted as being caused by GW are within the norm or not so far outside of the norm to worry us overmuch. Well, maybe. It is hard to ascribe certain things directly when it comes to weather so, do carry on. Now the book goes to the "Why It Matters" part of the title and it is something to behold. First off he states we should just continue burning up fossil fuels because getting the economy off our carbon addiction is hard. That's it, the only reason: We're very good in this oil thing, so we should just keep doing it. Even if you discount GW, there are quite a number of good reasons to stop burning oil. Pollution, for example, or our dependency on shady regimes for our supply, Russia and Saudi to name just two. None of that features in Steven's reasoning though. Drill, baby drill! Mr. Koonin then goes to "solutions" because, remember, GW does exist. Even according to Steven. His proposal is to protect ourselves from the consequences of GW, not prevent it. So, spend money on dykes and other protective measures. He does spare a thought for poor/developing nations that have no money for protective measures: Basically the rich nations should support them. I have no words to describe how bonkers this is. If we just focus on sea level rise, and this is only one aspect of the consequences we could face, the cost would be insane. Furthermore, the idea that rich nations would support developing nations, is bizarre. First of all, many "rich" nations are not ready themselves, nor are they making serious plans to get ready. The US, as the richest nation on earth, will lose large parts of their territory because they're in no way prepared. If they decide to get ready, the investments will be so astronomically high, no American will spare a thought for some islands that will be wiped of the map or, let's say, Bangladesh being under 3 feet of water. So, the last part of the book, which is arguably the most important part since we all agree GW exists even if we maybe not agree on the immediacy, is so incredibly unserious it's hard to see this book as anything other than a handy collection of statistics and arguments to deny GW. This is the ammunition that Faceboook-"experts" and Twitter-heroes can use during their spurious arguments for why they should be allowed to keep driving a 5 ton gas-guzzler.