I was one of the 2 people in our book club who didn't think this is the best book since sliced bread. It was okay. There were really 2 stories they were both kind of interesting in their own right, and though they were related, they really weren't connected. The jumping back and forth between the 2 was trying. The one Devon I'm positive I got from the book was an interest in Spinoza; he was a fascinating and deep scientist and philosopher, although the book really didn't go into that much… He was, unfortunately, misplaced in time!
But back to the book: it was too wordy, and there were times when the words got in the way of the story. It was an okay book, but I would not go out of my way for it. It was particularly hard for me to get into it. I listened to it as opposed to "READ reading" it, and when I started it, I ended up not paying much attention to it. When I got halfway through the 1st of the 3 sections and was totally lost, I realized I had to pay attention, so I went back and started over. I thought that maybe I just didn't like it because I wasn't paying attention. Upon reading listening, I realized that I wasn't paying attention because I didn't care for it, not the other way around. But I did go through the whole thing (it's a LONG book, about 22 hours listening) paying attention the whole time.