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I was 75% through about to give this book 5 stars, then after another chapter or two I had downgraded to 4 stars. Now at the end, part of me want to give 3 stars.

I think I need to reflect on the last part of the book for a bit, because some of the decisions the author made and the directions some things went in I am in turns lukewarm on and baffled by.

In the end, it was a really good read that I'm going to be thinking about the ending of for a bit, but I can't yet tell if I'll be thinking about it in a good way.

It was good. I was worried at the beginning it was going to be a big, sweeping, space empire politics story - which is not something I really love. But after some world building, the scope shrunk down and it was a pretty interesting, if a little more outside-the-box than I generally prefer, story.

My initial impressions were largely correct, but not in a bad way. It went a little far afield into curmudgeonly rambling a couple of times, but for the most past was a fine discussion on the topic of anti-intellectialism in America and its consequences.

The central conceit of the book here is interesting. And when the writing is on topic, it's a good (if a bit surface level) exploration of a societal phenomenon. Light non-fiction reading.

But so far it seems like it sometimes wanders a bit off topic and can tread into "old man yells at cloud" territory at times.

This was a good, quick read that had some interesting ideas. I wish it had explored some of those ideas a little more deeply, but then it may have overstayed its welcome.

Obvious comparisons to LeGuin's Rocannon's World , but it's different enough I didn't find myself thinking I should've just reread that instead.

Aloft was the weakest of the three stories so far. "Horror-ish" stories with intentionally unlikeable protagonists aren't really my favorite. But the overall concept was interesting enough to keep me moving. Let's hope Rain makes up for it.