The listeners

The book is interlocked with spanish, italian, latin and old-english quotes that I absolutely positively hated. Most of them have no connection to the plot whatsoever and only disturb the reader from the main events. There was only one likeable character and that was the protagonist Robert MacDonald. Everyone else was either too mediocre or just deserving frowns. The plot is interesting, but very slow-paced with kickstart introduction and quick ending. Some commonalities can be seen between movie The Contact and this book as the setting is way too similar. I do not recommend this book to anyone except completionists who need to read every book about SETI. There is hardly anything memorable that I will be able to recall in 1 year's time after reading this book. Yeah, and I almost forgot, the “Computer run” chapters were driving me crazy - randomly selected text, again, with very little connection to the rest of the book. 100% time wasting guaranteed. Moreover, the book is terribly typeset, as if somebody was using Word for the first time in their life with the itchy need to try out as many fonts and buttons as possible.

Edit, 8 years later: Upgrading from 2 stars to 3 stars. I was wrong about not remembering anything from the book. There is one scene I vividly remember, and that is about Robert and his wife (don't want to spoil more). Anyway, somehow, it stands out quite a lot compared to other books.