Some context, from
Back when I wrote Goodreads reviews, I tried to keep them short & sweet — which makes them seem a little out of place here on this blog!
Tough reading at times, I often got the nagging feeling that the author was trying to impress me with his (obviously deep and detailed) knowledge of a wide variety of topics above telling a story. This did lend to the feel of the book as a kind of fictional historical text (which I think was the intention), but I did put the book down once without the intention of picking it up again.
Despite this, an interesting take on the future of humanity (in 2312, surprise surprise) and quite the page turner, if only in spurts.