jon

Great ending, great trilogy!

Basically: I'd not recommend this book. Or I'd recommend it if it were ⅕ the length.

- 1st 20%: 5 stars. Reaction: interesting experiment, fun concept, enjoying both the SF abstractions and the navel-gazing/philosophizing.

- next 30%: 4 stars. Reaction: starting to wonder if the repetitive navel-gazing will tone down and the actual plot will get more contentful.

- last 50%: 1 star. Reaction: omfg I can't believe this all the book's going to offer.

Fun, particularly if you're a stationary nerd, visual artist, or like a book that jumps all over historical timeline to give little disparate history lessons.

Started May 2025, forgot about it, and picked it up again to rread the whole thing in just a couple days' sittings. Really a page turner—guessing my first failed read was just bad timing.

Had to take a break early on because I thought it was too dark. Really glad I came back. Loved the whole story, and the characters were excellent!

Loved the historical fictional setting of colonial Boston. Would recommend - fast page turner.

I liked the story and characters and mechanics, but just think it should've been half the length and the first ¾ of not doing anything should've been a chapter or two.

Was surprisingly a real drag to get through the first ¾. I think because the story telling style is so heavily leaning on emotion (or talking around emotions) and so little on action. It became really very difficult to tell what the heck is going on most of the time. I think this works well for a novella but was painful for a whole novel. I know Rogue Protocol was longer, but don't remember that one being a problem...

Anyway, wouldn't recommend, but I'd recommend the rest of the series for sure!

such a good universe. this book had the most surprises throughout that I can recall.

Some lovely new characters and lots of surprising twists.

Soothing, calm read

Absolutely loved so much about this book. Hadn't head of this title before chi publib was featuring it, and so glad they were!

fills in a lot of the missing backstory from the first three books in the trilogy. doesn't hurt to read it after the first three books though... but I can't imagine it would spoil anything to read it before then either.

Funny, would recommend.

Absolutely awesome

Loved this book!

Mid-read review:
~43% in: what an amazing story.

I remember learning about the Dust Bowl of the 30's in high school but the imagery in the this book is still shocking.

Really delivered. Different style than the rest of the series, but just as pleasant.

Amaze

Great pairing with To Engineer Is Human, but less pointed and more fluffy/repetitive. Still a good read!

Lots of fun, highly recommend!

Loved this book. Found it helpful when I was otherwise getting dizzying array of info from various trail running podcasts.

Great book. Will read again soon

Good info. Felt longer than it needed to be. Glad I read it, and I'll definitely be reading this periodically.

Wish I'd read this sooner! But I'm glad that when I am finally reading it, I'm also actively running. (In fact rest this entirely during my runs, as an audiobook). Loved it!

Really fun to listen to while running. A bit long winded, but added to the good campfire story telling vibe.

Fun addition to the series, a perfect distraction when going on long runs. Looking forward to #4.