Govind

The book is a quick read. It dumbs down many of the complex cyber security concepts into an accessible manner, with diagrams and charts. Anyone would get it regardless of their familiarity with the matter. I liked how the author incorporated details about Asian culture and religious harmony in a great, tasteful way, especially with the interaction between the friends.

The author gave an unnecessary backstory for a side character, I felt that could have been avoided. Coming to the story itself, it’s kind of weak. The fast pace feels alright at the start, but by the end, it feels like everything resolved too quickly. Plus, the story is too simple to be really engaging. I feel like if they raised the stakes up and the made the novel a little longer and fleshed out, it would have been much better. So overall, it falls flat and can only serve as a quick, simplified PSA about the scope of new age cyber crimes, something which is a little more for fun and warm to read than an article.

Thank you, NetGalley, for providing the advance copy for review.

Murakami uses his signature writing of men and women in a slightly different direction here. Usually, the men have flawed character traits that are overlooked, and the women are written shallowly or remain impassive to the provocations of the man. Here, however, we see a slight departure from the usual, as the man’s behavior is questioned more directly than is often seen in his works.

The FMC, while still a classic Murakami character in many ways, is written with more depth, and we gain better insight into her thoughts as the story is told from her point of view. Overall, this is a good read and worth checking out if you enjoy the author's work.

One of the better short stories by Haruki Murakami. There wasn’t much of his cringe worthy writing about women. Overall, a good, enjoyable read. I really liked how the story ended. It was kind of poetic.

It's abstract and strange, but an interesting read nonetheless.