For some reason I did not enjoy this book. I believe that it was quite well written and was about Godel and Turing, both things that I thoughts I would enjoy. But I found the style of the book decidedly unpersuasive and did not engage a great deal with the Author's style or the characters. ( )

This is an odd little novel about Kurt Godel and Alan Turing that doesn't quite seem to have a point. It might have been better if there were more fiction in it. ( )

A tricky challenge -- to build a novel around the ideas of the Vienna Circle and Wittgenstein, debating those with related ideas of Alan Turing around free will and artificial intelligence. There is no narrative that easily links these since Turing had no actual contact with Gödel, but the ideas are, of course, central to twentieth-century philosophy.

Out of this unlikely material, Levin has made a thoroughly readable, albeit inconclusive, tale. What keeps it alive are the characterizations, carefully developed from biographies and the characters' own published work, and the prose, which is always graceful and often lyrical. ( )

Here is a most interesting book by the intellegent and imaginative writer, Jenna Levin, a cosmologist. The effect this book had on me was similar to the first book I ever read by Dave Eggers. You realize you are in the presence of someone who can take you soaring on flights of fancy without ever letting you lose sight of the truth. This innovative, compelling story alternates between the lives of Alan Turing and Kurt Gödel, both geniuses, and both leading tragic lives. I couldn't put the book down until I had finished it. And I still don't know where I stand on the central question addressed in the book: “Where is God in 1 + 1 = 2?” But I know I've been thinking about it every second since I put this book down. This is science writing at its best. ( )

http://kenficara.net/books/2007/06/a_... ( )