"Classic, wry, gleeful Bryson"

Well, no. It's classic bookish Bryson, where he researches something that he reckons people might be interested in, but it's not particularly "wry" or humorous.

Reading this book is a little like eating a box of chocolates: the facts, crammed throughout every chapter, are interesting and fascinating on their own, but once you've read a few chapters it's all a bit sickly, and you need to put the book down for a bit.

The basic point: "it's all very complicated and we don't know much" is hammered home every few pages. And it is. And we don't. But even so.

(I bailed, 29% in)