This book is 4% science, 96% academic drama.

Panek is not a very skilled writer and his cast of characters is near indistinguishable from each other (with the exception of the fabulous Vera Rubin) which makes it impossible to care for the drama since I could barely keep track of which person was on which competing team. This was all the more frustrating since I didn't pick this up to read about people trying to out-publish each other; I wanted science.