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Ah this was amazing. I didn't have any expectations of this book but it turned out to be a thrilling story of vintage computer crime told in a compelling accessible way.

I loved the way the scale and scope of the story was slowly grown from a tiny accounting error into an intercontinental espionage tale.

Interesting to read about some of the early computer vulnerabilities, early approaches to security, as well as perspectives from government agencies.

This was a great introduction to computer history and cybersecurity, written as a thriller that could easily be fictional - if only it wasn't.

Published in 1989, I'm sad I've been unaware of it all that time. I'm definitely going to read more in this genre. I much preferred the earlier smaller scale of the book, and found it less interesting once the scale blew up.

I quite enjoyed this, though it felt a bit flat overall. I think as historical fictions go, this is a good accessible read.

Robinson's voice comes through in this novel and there are notes of wit and drama (though perhaps listening to him narrate it played a part in this...)

A decent story inspired by Pillars of the Earth, Game of Thrones, and attempting to emulate Pratchett in parts.

I didn't really feel overly gripped, but I know it's the first of a series and I will read on. There's a lot of characters, politics and quite a fast pace.

I did enjoy this, but nowhere near as much as the first. I think it was quite similar for the second to me.

I think it's just too big and covered too much - it felt like Pullman was worried he won't do any more stories. It really could have done with being half the length.

That said, I really enjoyed some of the major themes. I loved the melancholic longing for mystery, magic, and things we see out of the corner of our eye.

While I think there's plenty of majesty and beauty in the natural world and the wonder of science - I confess I'd love to believe there's some ineffable magic left hiding in a wood somewhere. I think I choose that.

I think I enjoy prequels compared to sequels especially when it feels like the original books stand on their own. I have to say I felt like some of the plot here cheapened the ending of The Amber Spyglass.

I enjoyed the premise of this book - being set 100 years in the future in which we are history being studied.

It was difficult to read, being split into two parts. It covers themes of how much can we really expect to know about each other, and history. Even our memories day to day are unreliable and affected by emotion and preconceptions.

The stand out message for me was how well do we really understand those we would claim to. How have we misread others and how will we be misread outselves.

It's quite a slow book in my opinion, and you would need to be OK with not having every question answered (indeed, that's probably the point)

I enjoyed this. It's cool to jump into an extremely cosmere aware and space age novel from Sanderson.

I think it also worries me a bit - as the scale and scope of his writings expands, I worry something is being lost on the smaller stories being told.

How much of the appeal of the Cosmere to me was because we delayed dragons and high magic? Story itself is nice - love Sixth of the Dusk and Sanderson's obsession with Aviar comes through consistently.

References to Hoid, Frost, and loads more info on Yolen were great to see. As always a 3 for Sanderson is probably a 4 elsewhere.

This was a solid, interesting read about sleep and dreaming. A decent focus on history and evolution, too.

I don't think it will change your life.