Swapnil

Book has complex character play and interesting plot and twists. There is nothing science fiction-y about this book. Had it been the political drama instead of sci-fi book, author still able to keep the same story. But that doesn't make it a bad book, I just had different expectations. Its more of ‘dune' type of science fiction book than ‘foundation' type. Sometimes author unnecessarily tries to make situation science fiction-y by using technobabble and falls flat on face. But nevertheless, it's interesting read.

After watching Alain de Botton's insightful ‘School of life' videos on YouTube, I was very excited to read this book, and I must say I enjoyed it a lot. The book is quotation factory, in good sense. It flips back and forth between novel and self-help book, but you don't feel annoyed by it. If you have cherished view of romantic love then you need to read this book to keep yourself grounded on earth so that you don't hurt yourself when love loses its wings.

Tolstoy has famous quote saying – All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. I think it's apt quote but in reverse direction when we apply it to current state of Nations. When I talk with friends we often talk about how media is biased towards former ruling party and not portraying the correct picture of the current ruling party in India. They say if somehow they show the correct picture then people will appreciate what government is doing (or what they are not doing, for that matter). And exactly same problem Chomsky talks about in detail and he present it so eloquently that you starts to wonder whether there is any hope of expecting for media to behave sanely. I mean, one of the most powerful country has this flaw, then what chance India has. The problem is that with America its media working for government and for India is media working against it. Not to mention how horrific situation of world is due to this power-play. Again you have to take every opinion of every activist with grain of salt and don't fall for the trap that the activist itself is promoting to solve. One thing for sure though, I starting to see pessimistic but somewhat clear picture of the problems in the world and now pondering whether there will ever be any solution to such problems.
A side note: I picked up this book after reading Aaron Swartz's review of this book in his blog post and I think you too should read his opinion of this book in his blog post

This book I picked up because I wanted to read something light (after reading very heavy GRRM books) and boy, this book delivered. Its light and funny and along the way tell you a lot about world history, in its own style, mind you. I am not saying this is history book, but author intertwines the story of Allan (the protagonist) with centuries worth of significant events spanning from Second world war, Chinease Civil War, Manhattan Project, Cold war (and subsequent nuclear non-proliferation treaties), to Korean war. I have to look up Wikipedia articles to see which events are real and which one are made up. But overall, book sets up a good background for story and you always get rooted for Allan, to see what he is going to screw up next.

Its translated book, and I think its good translation as I saw myself laughing many a time, especially for Allan's social inaptitude and for his general carelessness.

Funny, witty and sometimes thought provoking. Whoa bro!