This is a two-book omnibus editon, so I'll review the books separately:

The Life of the World to Come:

This was great. The "big reveal" that the Company is basically run by a bunch of future-D&D style nerds with no real understanding of life or grip on the consequences of their actions is hilarious, and Alec's parallel story is a great little adventure/psychodrama. I wince a little at the "the future will suck because the ultraliberal feminist/vegan/thought police will take over" trope, especially since it hasn't aged well at all, but it does provide some amusing sources of conflict. My only gripe is that it ends without wrapping anything up, and the next book in the omnibus doesn't continue the story thread at all.

Children of the Company:

This was... weird. I liked it, don't get me wrong, but it's basically a collection of short stories (several of which I had read before) spliced together. It's not a novel in the usual sense. There are some eye-opening moments, and it was fun to reread some of the vignettes now that I have much, much more context for them, but it was a bit disappointing, especially after the brilliant previous novel. ( )