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It was enjoyable but nothing beyond that. I'd neither encourage anyone to nor dissuade anyone from reading it.

This book is unfortunately just a mixture of blockhain cringe and what I like to call Wikipedia fiction (i.e. fiction in the spirit of someone who just learned of Wikipedia and now things the internet will somehow solve all societal problems; think Neal Stephenson). Doesn't align at all with my political views so not at all enjoyable. (I believe the only way such books can be enjoyed is if they can give you hope for the future, which this one doesn't for me)

Actually not reading at all but listening as an audio book instead

I have enjoyed some of the author's past books and this is more of the same: A fairly complex political/economic system being explained in some detail, highlighting the clever ideas and tricks come up with by some clever people to circumvent it/get an edge. The only problem this time is that it focused on baseball, which I know only the very basics of (certainly not all of the lingo they seem to have). Still very fun, but I'd recommend going to the more purely economic titles, like "Flash Boys" or "The big short" first.

@tfb@functional.cafe Ostensibly Asimov realized this himself and the last books in the series are a lot more mellow and critical of the perspective of the first few (as they were written quite a while later to soothe publishers hounding him about a sequel). Probably still doesn't make it worthwhile reading it tho.

Started listening to the audio book.

I picked up this book because I wanted to read something slightly outside my comfort zone. This certainly was. Overall, it was an enjoyable story, centered around a fun cast of characters (as Fanatsy usually is, I suppose). The world building was also a little outside of the cliche, most of the action scenes being focused around magical guns rather than swords and shields. In the end, it was fun but I am not planning on picking up the sequel.

I really enjoyed the book's "prose" or rather lack thereof. The writing is very straightforward, reading at times more like a play, including many grand monologues, rather than a novel.

However, the book's subject matter is not fun at all: It basically describes various ways in which political operatives acquire more power, always justified by "the survival of civilization". All in all, it reads as a praise of imperialistic tactics, which is pretty gross.