This book tries too hard to do too much. It ultimately is the story of a computer being built with typical exploitative labor practices and worst-practice management that's a case study for what not to do for its readers. It also is a character story, or rather, many character stories where the author dramatizes interactions and extrapolates on motivation to serve their narrative. Finally, the author is present in the story and feels compelled to wax philosophic and glamorize the character leads from their interactions in a way that is distracting. If you got rid of the things I disliked, the story would be more focused and probably boring as hell. I guess that's why you slap "Based on true events" on a movie and people come away thinking they had an accurate history lesson.
A decent premise brought down by the very questionable writing of the characters and the increasingly improbable events which lead to the climax. Still thoroughly enjoyed the pace and overall writing style which is very reminiscent of his other two works, but aside from being a palette cleanser between denser works, you're much better off elsewhere in his catalog.
An entertaining take on the classic time loop trope with ever-increasing stakes.
A meandering tale devoid of clear plot. Definitely not a style that I enjoyed reading, and even after learning the reasoning in the afterward it did not improve my opinion. There certainly were elements that increased my interest at times, but I never engaged with the story and felt it mostly a chore to finish.
