My overall rating would be 2.5 stars; slightly above "It was ok", but below "Liked it". The writing I would rate 4 stars, while the story line is about 1.5.

The book has multiple story lines. I found the post-apocalyptic story of the Symphony most engaging. It seems to have a couple small climaxes but very unrewarding resolution. I felt like justice was left up to a random fluke. This story line also includes a psychopathic maniac, which I think definitely was a minus for me. The mass savagery and general resignation of characters depicted here seemed a bit too much on the extreme. The science part of it doesn't check out against logic, it was a minus for me as well.

The central character Arthur Leander was described in a lot of detail, yet he was a very boring predictable person who went blindly through life without much awareness or real drive.

Almost all other storylines were of no consequence of we had just a brief glimpses into those lives.

Perhaps the biggest deep lesson of the book is it's most redeeming quality: Vapid, self-involved and not emotionally aware parents will likely raise a psychopathic child.