I hesitate to call this 'good.' It's certainly not gut-wrenchingly terrible, like Ready Player One or Armada, but it's kind of in the same family. A middle-aged hypernerd writing about cool teenagers who fall for hot cool babes and use the word 'vintage' way too much. The characters are very much mouthpieces who think and like the exact things that the writer does. And the book is more of a listing of what the author thinks are important or good, with a really dumb story tacked on. Although, this feels like more of an academic lecture. Also, it's better in that the point that Doctorow is making is a better one.

It's mostly a book about privacy and abuse of surveillance and the danger of ultra-nationalism and that very American brand of conservative and republican fake patriotism. I don't agree with every point he makes, but most I do, which might have made this one easier to stomach that the diarrhea Ernest Cline deposited on the page.

If you read it, be prepared to read a middle aged nerd write the phrase 'she was h4wt- as in hot.'

You have been warned.