Reviews and Comments

Reading the back cover, I was expecting a Tom Holt-esque story, but instead it had a definite Pratchett vibe.

I recently found this book in my local street library, along with a Killing Joke CD. I consider this a good haul.

As a non-native speaker, an interesting if sometimes difficult read due to archaic words and writing style. The format was somewhere between a philosophical treatise, an autobiography and a rant on society in general.

Tough book to read. This was my third attempt to read it. I love a good historical novel, and I enjoyed 'The Name of the Rose' so much, that I read it either twice or thrice. So for some reason, I decided to give this book a last try.

In the year 2024, the premise of the book is as relevant as ever and the idea of the story is fun. I even have the feeling that the story was meant with a bit of satire.

However, the author overly used esoteric jargon, almost palpably for the sake of letting the world know how much esoteric jargon he knew. Not only did it make the satire fall flat, it also made the story extremely slow to develop.

I feel that the book could have had the exact same story with 200 fewer pages. Then, it would have been a banger.

This is my third attempt to read this book. I loved the Name of the Rose and the premise of this book is nice. However, the first few chapters are poorly written semi-scientific gibberish with a few references to certain characters. As people apparently love this book, I decided to give it another attempt.

Novels by Bagley or McLean are a bit of a guilty pleasure to me. This one was particularly good. Yes, the characters are pretty black and white and the story was formulaic, but it was executed quite well.