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There are like three story lines and one of them is a bit unnecessary.

I liked the story less than the Eyre Affair, but it's an absolute banger.

There is significantly less thought-provoking constructs in the book than in Douglas Adams books, but there's one quote which stung quite a bit with how applicable it is to the country I live in:

Sadly for Goliath, even the hardiest of medical technicians balked at experiments conducted upon intelligent and speaking entities, so the first batch of Neanderthals were trained instead as "expendable combat units", a project that was shelved as soon as the lack of aggressive instincts in the Neanderthal was noted. They were subsequently released into the community as cheap labour and became a celebrated tax write-off.

Fforde really loves Adams, by the way:

Sample viewing figures for major TV networks in England, September 1985 Owl Vision

Will Marlowe or Kit Shakespeare? (literary quiz show) 13,591,203 One More Chance to See! (reverse extinction show) 2,321,820

Great book, I think one in the series will be a masterpiece. A ton of potential!

This is a must-read for every person. (See what I did there?).

I was starting to read this book assuming that I won't be too shocked. Women face so much unfairness, which – after seeing it once – is impossible to unsee.

Sadly, I was wrong. The most outrageous things I learned about were:

Uniform causing bone fracture in high-performance female professionals such as law enforcement, military, rescue.

Think about it – the objects that are meant to protect women instead damage them. It is known to manufacturers and governments, but it take lawsuits to get even a sliver of movement towards fixing.

Knowing refusal to sex the data.

Governments, academia, manufacturers refuse to sex the data of stuff like car crashes (!) using lame excuses. It's obvious that the idea is – if there is no data, it's impossible to be called out on a systemic problem. The same approach is happening in pharma. And it is true across the jurisdictions. Women die because men in high places are refusing to store the data that they demonstrably have.

Feminists having to deal with shitheads in their personal lives.

This book has two anecdotes from the author's personal life. One about her dating essentially a redpiller and one about her dating a techbro. This really shows how pathetic "dating market" is if for straight women.

Female warriors

The most outstanding example of male denial was the female Viking warrior story and how researchers would cut their tongues trying to swallow the Occam's razor arguing that it was a mix-up while processing archeological dig findings rather than admit the obvious – there were badass females leading their peers into battle way before Joan of Arc.

Quote of the book

I'll conclude with something from the field of economy. Where I thought that I know everything there is to know about pay gap...

There is no such thing as a woman who doesn’t work. There is only a woman who isn’t paid for her work

Think about it – the fact that women do 70-ish percent of household tasks means that they are more tired and have less time for hobbies and further education. Plus, the fact that at least 20% of their labour is unpaid vs slightly more than 10% of males, further contributes to pay gap!

This review only covers novel things for me and not all of those. Please read this book, there's a lot more research-backed examples. Talk about this book and share it. Data gap has to go, as well as male defaults, as well as male domination. It is in the best interest of the whole society, but that should be obvious to anyone.

Amazing worldbuilding. I'm a fan of Emily Short's "Counterfeit Monkey" interactive fiction game and this one feels like being set in a very similar universe.

Even though I'm almost over sci-fi which isn't hard sci-fi, this book is rigorous about the rules and there is only one deus ex moment here, but it was foreshadowed many times.

I love how Thursday's dad always ends his appearances with the same lame catchphrase even when he talks to her times in a row. It makes sense because in his timeline a lot more time passes.

This book handles time travel really well and plots a hook for the continuation of the series quite well. Or should I say... Hides it behind a wheel?

As usual, ending the review with the quote of the book:

My brother had fucked up. Nobody had bothered to put it so simply before; the military tribunal spoke of “tactical errors in the heat of the battle” and “gross incompetence.” Somehow “fucked up” made it seem more believable; we all make mistakes at some time in our lives, some more than others. It is only when the cost is counted in human lives that people really take notice.