Michael Best

The translation seemed a bit clunky. Perhaps that is the reason I rather plodded through this book.

The concept was intriguing. The execution a bit heavyhanded.

Possibly a 2.5 for me.

Initially, I thought I was going to love this strange book, but it sagged in the middle and never really recovered. I think such a curious, largely unexplained world requires a truly strong storyline and this didn't have it.

There is a reasonable backstory on the end of humanity but, other than that, this is just a sort of Mad Max for robots.

I am a lover of music, but I am not a musician. Perhaps, for that reason, in a story so deeply embedded with the language of music, I found myself hearing the notes but never catching the melody. Unsatisfying.

I would give this a 2.5 if I could.

At half way through I realised that I just wanted it to finish. By the finish I decided I must have missed something such as a point to the whole thing.

There was just about enough in the first book in the series to tempt to me to buy the second. I will not be buying any more. It is not just that I never believed that the murderer would have behaved as depicted, nor that the structure of the book rather heavily pointed to the identity of the murderer, it is most particularly that there is something in the style of writing that does not quite work for me.

I think I can understand why they are popular but they just aren't doing it for me.

I am perplexed that I can love Howard's End so much, yet A Room with a View (which many seem to regard as his best work) I found so unpleasant, overdone and rather tedious. Reading it was a chore.

I loved it. My subsequent thoughts:

1. How much more damage would an uncontrolled Nixon second term have done?

2. How it was not so much a domino effect, but rather a jenga effect where enough pieces were removed to cause the entire edifice to fall.

3. How thankful we should be that America learned a heavy lesson and has not since elected a thin-skinned, egotistical, bigoted, dishonest, media obsessed (with a persecution complex) and wholly unethical person to be its President.

Giving up after 100 pages.

I have little knowledge or interest in the academic subjects of this story. Probably, as a consequence, I am finding the humour falls entirely flat - it has not made me even merely smile once. The murder mystery aspect is insubstantial.

Most likely, this is a sharp, witty work of genius and I am a dunce.

Perhaps I had raised expectations because of all the positive reviews, but I found this book to be no more than ‘OK'.

Enjoyable, but different from the usual murder mystery in that it is a series of sections which have minor mysteries, and as Kaga resolves these the solution to murder becomes clear.

I really liked the story structure but the core of the tale is not as strong as other Higashino books I have read.

A book that seemed to promise big ideas, left me completely cold and a little bored.

If one is dealing with the creation and destruction of civilisations, does one really need to know that two characters ordered meatballs in a restaurant?

Oh, tip for all budding civilisation builders - avoid right-angles! (Perhaps the meatballs were a clue?)

I enjoyed the sections about Shams, but I was far less taken with the modern tale of Ella.

My first, and possibly my last Allingham book. It was short and easy to read, but felt very dated in style. Perhaps my negativity is influenced by the fact that, on this occasion, I had guessed from very early on who was the killer.

Probably a 3.5 for me. It is a very easy read but rather more simplistic in dealing with the subject matter than I had expected.

I loved the first half of this book and thought it might end up a 5 star read but I felt it lost some of it's quirkiness in the second half.

Having previously read The Greenhouse and having now read this I do love her writing (albeit, in translation) .

I have given this a 2, but I really didn't like it very much at all. The book is highly rated, so the fault must be with me, but it felt like a collection of bits of research on bomb disposal, deserts, Herodotus, within an unconvincing story on love and loss.

An intriguing if, for me, a rather inconsistently written book.

Lots of big ideas but I was quite bored for the last half of this substantial book.

This is a DNF for me.

The start was intriguing and I was hopeful that I had found a new, well written, thoughtful sci-fi novel. Alas, no. I gave up at 50% after several pages dedicated to describing a woman “self-pleasuring”. I hope the author enjoyed himself writing that, because it was painful to read.

I generally enjoyed this book, but it was hard work at times.

What is wrong with telling a good story in plain English?

I enjoyed this but found it more predictable than Tinker Tailor or The Spy Who Came In From The Cold.

I'm late coming to this book. I'm not quite sure why. Alongside The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, for me this is absolutely masterful.