Kevin Murray

If you enjoyed The Martian, you'll appreciate this. I saw another review that said it reads like you're watching a movie, which is fairly accurate. Are there implausibly fantastical situations? Sure. The whole book is predicated on an implausibly fantastic situation, but it doesn't take away from just how much fun it is to read.

I... found myself rooting for the bears more often than not. The cast of characters are what you'd expect, and it was interesting to read of the experiences these folks have had with the growing bear population in their community.

That said, I found at times the story ran long. The book itself is broken into many many small chapters; while easy to read in bite-sized pieces it disrupts any kind of flow.

I suppose I'd had different expectations about the topic of the book. I expected it to be more about the workings of a libertarian town building up, and while it has that, the bears feature a lot more prominently overall.

An interesting idea stretched a bit longer than maybe it needed to be, the ending comes about rather quickly and suddenly. That's not to say that what comes before isn't enjoyable, I had a difficult time putting it down, but it all wraps in the last 120 pages awfully quickly.

I've thought about how this would work as a linear narrative, without the narrative jumping around in time, but I think it would be a lesser novel that way. While for some it might feel a bit preachy at the end, I enjoyed it.