rex

[Spoilers ahead]
An inexplicably charming bookstore, a designer who learned programming as a side hobby, a secret book cult with a batcave, a roomate who works at ILM, the art of cryptography, characters with an undying love for the smell of books, and the underlying message of how technology isn't always as powerful as we'd want it to be, but it does help a great deal in bringing people closer together. Felt like Sloan wrote this book just for me - needless to say I was captivated from the very beginning.

This book had so much potential to be great. And yet the ending seemed a bit... rushed. Some of the technical explanations also felt a bit effortless. And yes, too much Google. Can't go past 2 or 3 pages without that name popping up. It got annoying after a while :/ I wish I could give it a 5/5 but I just can't. But in all honesty it was still very impressive for a debut novel, so kudos to Robin Sloan.