The third novel by Vonnegut that I've read and probably the one I'm least appealed to, artful and clever as it is. Unlike the top reviewer, I didn't feel that book was gradually losing brightness, quite the opposite, I felt it was gathering pace toward the end. The first part of the book, devoted to the narrator gathering information about Dr. Felix Hoenikker, the (fictional) inventor of the atomic bomb, was less than engaging for me, even Vonnegut's sharp-witted and persuasive (if somewhat abrupt) writing did little to help. The plot started to unfold more rapidly after the narrator travels to (fictional) banana republic San Lorenzo, home to a truly interesting (fictional) religion called Bokononism, for reasons I won't disclose to avoid spoilers, and this was where the book finally got hold of me. The science-fictional idea of Ice-9 results in a story, which most authors would've turned into a grim warning for mankind, but it sounds more like sad mockery of a human race and it's nature, when told by Vonnegut. Three and a half stars to a good book, that just didn't resonate with me, rounded up to four.