Reviews and Comments

This book seems to be wish fulfillment aimed at millennials who took the pandemic very seriously. That's not me. Also, the references and quips were often quite grating. The world building was cool, though.

Basically, half of this is the first Harry Potter book, the other half the seventh (of course better written). I probably would've enjoyed this even more when I was younger.

An exciting thriller, paired with a picture of Silicon Valley from the perspective of an "old computer person" who has been there more or less from the beginning.

The author has said this book is inspired by Hermann Hesse and you can tell (this is a high compliment). The world building is superb as well. What more could you ask for?

It might just be because I like Science Fiction a lot more, but this was much less enjoyable to me than any of his works in that genre.

I'm not even quite sure why, but this has been the most gripping installment so far (which is saying something). Probably the best third part of any series I've read so far.

I strongly recommend this to everyone. It is beautiful, at times funny and rather short. I read most of it in a day (and I'm a slow reader). Do give it a chance, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

I didn't read the back cover properly. All of these stories are "classics" i.e. quite old already. That means they usually will not involve any surprising concepts or ideas. The most you'll get is "Oh, they were already thinking of this back then?".

I still don't know what to make of this. Many aspects of this book were stylistically different from what I am used to, so I am mainly left a little confused. It is interesting for sure, though.

I read this in the original German, so I can't speak for the quality of the translation. Most of the time, this book is funny (usually witty) but it can also sometimes get a little extra. The most solid part of this book is the world building, which is not super realistic (although consistent) but always wild and surprising.

Features more fascinating world-building, high stakes and some gut-wrenching deaths.

I heard mixed things about this one but in the end it was really fun. Also, turns out that this is the favorite book of multiple friends of mine.

I adore these kinds of post-singularity settings that verge on cosmic horror because many features of these advanced civilizations are completely inscrutable to us present-day humans. If you find these sorts of things interesting, give it a read!

Way too USian. If you want to give tons of descriptions of the dimensions of things, maybe don't use imperial units. The book also assumes you are familiar with the geography of NY and the US. These two things make it a tiring read. Might be fine as an audiobook.