pineconek's Reviews (816)

This book was hella emotionally charged, and filled with tension - between two friends, between the natural world and "progress", between sets of twins/siblings, land vs ocean, a big yes/no referendum, fact and fiction, symbiosis and parasitism... 

I don't know how to explain this book to you. It's about a tech mogul behind a massively successful online platform. It's also about his (former) best friend and their complicated dynamic. And about an elderly woman from Montreal who was a famous diver/researcher (though I found the French, the audiobook accent, and the references to Montreal a bit too on the nose) and her love for the ocean. And it's about a small island community in the Pacific. And about the history of computing, passing through the genesis of internet and projecting through to the future of AI. 

And it's about redemption, legacy, immortality, guilt, and wishful thinking. 

The point of a finite game is to win it. But this is an infinite game - the point is to keep playing.

I listened to this over the course of several months, at a very difficult time in my life full of transition, disillusionment, guilt, and a peculiar shift in senses of loneliness and connection. This book was a good companion for those months where I struggled to focus or read, for I too felt fragmented and like I was losing my mind. 

I'll be thinking about this one for a while. 4.5 stars rounded up. 

I want to come back to this one. I wanted to brush up on my act skills, but turns out that life decided to force me to use them. 

I wanted to like this, but I couldn't get into it whatsoever. DNF because the library loan expired and I'm ok not to read the last little bit.