3 and a half stars. 4 for the madly inventive ideas, and the brilliant concept that links them. but then on the other hand, barely 3 for the actual writing, which reads a whole lot like Brian Stapleton, which okay, okay, goes with the concept, but is nevertheless hard shovelling all the same. altogether, required reading, and let's admit it's an absolute classic, one of a kind and a logical conceit carried brilliantly to its (il)logical conclusion, while along the way a lot of science guys and philosophers get usefully hoist to their own petards. but caveat: that doesn't mean the reading thereof is gonna bring the fun. ( )