Jake Wharton

I can see how the first 40% of the book would be confusing to someone coming in blind, but once things snap into place the short chapters fall away quickly. The climax felt a little underwhelming given the steady increase of intensity leading up to it, but ultimately was still satisfying.

This book tries too hard to do too much. It ultimately is the story of a computer being built with typical exploitative labor practices and worst-practice management that's a case study for what not to do for its readers. It also is a character story, or rather, many character stories where the author dramatizes interactions and extrapolates on motivation to serve their narrative. Finally, the author is present in the story and feels compelled to wax philosophic and glamorize the character leads from their interactions in a way that is distracting. If you got rid of the things I disliked, the story would be more focused and probably boring as hell. I guess that's why you slap "Based on true events" on a movie and people come away thinking they had an accurate history lesson.

A more enjoyable take on 1984 that actually suffers from having to fit into the rigid events it imposes.