simonator's Reviews (183)

A challenging and sweeping genealogy of the political conceptualisations of money. Especially the first few chapters took ages to dig through. But the depth of thought and research behind this is impressive.

Trotz des pentratenten Denglisch mit all dem korrekten Wokejargon hats jetzt keine grossen Gedanken angeregt. Ja, Weisse mit Dreads sind scheisse und Fusion ist cringe. Und jetzt? 

Stunning installment in an already excellent series. The writers understand two writing rules very well: One, 'intricate personalities do not make for engaging characters - their decisions do'. And this story was entirely driven by a set of characters making understandable, human choices faced with asymmetrical information, warped perceptions, and a hostile environment. The "villains", too, did what they did in the same framework as the more sympathetic characters and were thus entirely believable. Two, 'never let a coincidence be a good thing for your cast - only a bad thing'. The way the characters' choices and increasingly dangerous set environment cascaded together into an unpredictable, breathtaking and fast-paced plot was masterful. I couldn't put it down. 

There is one weakness persisting from the previous books that is keeping this from a perfect score. The plot deals with the profoundly unnerving and eldritch experience of alien life and touching down on an unknown planet. While there was some improvement over the previous book, the feeling of otherworldliness and strangeness just doesn't quite manifest.  I believe this is due to the writers' focus on dialogue and blockbuster-action. The plus side of this is that the writers got much better at crafting truly snappy and funny dialogue that feels less hollywood-y than in the first few books. 

Difficult to enjoy for anyone but academic historians. I'm sure the research is splendid and illuminates an under-covered area of study with respect and diligence, but it fails to create a red-line or poignant theme that keeps a more casual reader engaged. Every now and then, the author trickles in a colourful metaphor to keep the text flavourful, but frankly, they are superficial and seem like they were added after the bulk of the text was written. 
Nevertheless, an informative read for anyone seeking to understand the Middle-East and relations with Rome before the advent of Islam.

Excellent edition to this foundational myth. Not only a skillful poetic retelling of the epic, but also includes informative academic essays on the historical, archeological, linguistic, and cultural context. Great recommendation for anyone seeking to delve into Akkadian/Sumerian Bronze Age history.

Very interested to the inclined reader, and insightful to political strategy even today. Helpful annotations aid with sorting the polemics into context. Great quick read to get an overview of Trotsky's views on social democracy, "social fascism", and the fodder and tactic of fascism. 

An excellent empirical venture into markets, failed and successful public policy, and fragile country contexts. It puts evidence first and attempts (often successfully) to take a balanced, neural view. To it’s great credit, it includes a comprehensive annex with short literature reviews and contextual facts.

But of course, there is no such thing as apolitical economics. From an ideological standpoint, I often felt markets were given undue credit when I interpreted the presented data as evidence for the failures of the global market economy. Also, I had to grit my teeth at the characterization of Allende’s socialist programme’a effects; the chapter on Chile sometimes disguised opinion as fact. But in general, such pro-market bias was far less prevalent throughout than one would expect from an The Economist writer. 

The biggest thing keeping me from living this book is that there is a slight lack of coherency and synthesis. The red line that should bind the chapters together into a holistic argument remained somewhat flimsy. Especially the chapters on Chile and Estonia felt out of place in the whole book; the Extremeness of the other case studies was much more apparent. The concluding chapter did not go deep enough and failed to go truly beyond raising questions and commit to a central argument. Nevertheless, a great deal can be learned from this study.