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A complex and subtle story with many innovative plot elements and world details that often feels like its been intentionally written to be hard to follow. A worthwhile and satisfying read, due in part to its length.

@sohkamyung We just picked this up!

A story-driven history of the analytics movement in soccer/football. O'Hanlon brings personal knowledge of the game and experience writing about the sport to the book, and the result is an engaging overview of soccer and its complicated relationship with math. Not too technical, but technical enough to know exactly where to look if you want to learn more about how analysts are trying to quantify a seemingly unquantifiable game.

A solid, fun, page-turning sci fi mystery. If you go looking for plot holes and scientific shortcomings you'll undoubtedly find them, but I enjoyed the book enough not to go looking.

A beautiful, engrossing, haunting story. The innocence of the narrator and her vivid coming of age stories drift toward unsettling resolutions that reveal themselves slowly. But like the characters in the book, we knew what was coming all along.

The aging luxury hotel moving through space provides a clever hospitality-industry backdrop for enjoyable character development stories. A political mystery story line attempts to pull them altogether, but doesn't deliver as much as I hoped.

An incredible and innovative book full of wisdom, humor, purpose, and the kind of writing that makes you feel like the author is sitting by your side telling you the story. I was sad for it to come to an end. So it goes.

A readable mix of familiar Sci Fi and Adventure elements that are done better elsewhere. The set-up is compelling and there are some well-conceived and executed story lines, but the most "alien" part of story didn't come together for me: It didn't mesh well with the other story-lines and made things drag a bit at the end. I wasn't initially interested in reading more, but now a few months later, and seeing that this is an early work from the author, I might take a chance on the sequel.

@mouse It's a great series!

Incredible story of WWII-era espionage centered on the notorious double-agent Kim Philby, who spent 30 years as one of the most influential spies in both British and American intelligence all the while working directly for the Soviets. The real-life spy stories are exciting and well-told, and in them it's easy to see the origins of fiction like James Bond and "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy". There is a parallel story about the danger of the "old boy" network, where authority, influence, and trust is given based on social standing, and maintaining appearances is often more important than doing what's right.

I enjoyed this overall, but perhaps not as intended. It's a vivid portrayal of a kind of person I've often known but never quite understood: the classically trained musician who seems imprisoned and tortured by music while professing to love it. It's several sad stories told well — of lifelong performance anxiety, of inhibiting perfectionism, of being an outsider — but perhaps the saddest story is that of the person who might be happy if they could understand just one thing, yet you know they never will. I never bought in to the "time" theme, and the attempts to weave physics in were strained, but I found much to learn from and admire here.

A compelling, well-told story built on a deep understanding of science -- not just the content, but its people, culture, and relationships with government and policy. The book moves briskly in many places, but drags in some. Good characters with complex relationships explore familiar themes in the outbreak genre: competing scientific theories, competing policy positions, iconoclasts against the establishment, truth against mob mentality, and ultimately humankind versus itself.

A fun, if uneven read. It's at its best when focused on the stories and characters that fill the author's life of gambling, hustling, winning, and losing. It's at its worst when the author tries too hard to be the victim who does right by everyone even while being wronged. You probably wouldn't expect — or maybe even want — a fully honest self-accounting from a man who's lost so much, but his is a unique story and there is a good deal of truth here, including some the author may not see himself.

@sohkamyung I started this and put it down, as it didn't seem worth it. Thanks for posting a review!

An immensely satisfying story about human advancement and hubris that gave me everything I'm looking for in good sci fi. It's an exciting story filled with twists and turns that touches on deep, familiar ideas in profound and novel ways. There's lots to think about, characters to care about, and story lines to look forward to. The kind of book that gets me looking into the rest of the author's catalog.