The Man Who Saw Seconds

This is a tricky book to write a review for. Parts of it read like an over-the-top season of 24, while at other points it gets very philosophical.

The pacing definitely felt uneven. It starts with such a high intensity ramp up that the middle and ending had difficulty matching. There are several weirdly slow interludes getting into the weeds on military trivia, neuroscience etc. I guess these could have been attempts to make the sci fi elements “harder”, but felt unnecessary to me.

The one slow bit that I got really into was when one of the characters waxes poetic on his vision of a system of anarchist checks and balances built into a capitalist system. Would be interested to find some non-fiction exploring those ideas further.

By far the strongest writing in this book was anything to do with the kid. As the parent of a toddler, these parts were sometimes hilarious, sometimes painful, but always exactly spot-on.

Can we get a sequel where everyone in the world suddenly gets this ability?