Graham

Weirdly important to me, a sequel that came out of nowhere and eclipsed an already great first book in the series.

Extremely interesting non-fiction! As much as it informs current politics, the author sticks mainly to focusing on the Philippines and Puerto Rico, and the path to technical ownership. It's a principled view but I would have liked to see more on American influence over non-owned areas like Israel, South Korea and Taiwan as well. That being said this is a great read that goes down interesting tangents and makes both the history and the point compelling and logical.

This is a very specific take on 'how to kill a god'. Parts of this were very well thought out heist-like planning. Other parts felt very like a first draft, important details being given a random conversation late in the book.

I did not have anyone to root for in this book. But it was a page-turner.

After I got through the first hundred pages or so it was just banger after banger. This is a Roman-like world with a realistically motivated hero, and both a believable exploration of society and government while still being couched in an unreliable first person narration.