I enjoyed some of the sciencey ideas in this book a lot, and the idea of a powerful elite group manipulating the US government is amusing and entertaining. Some of the scenes and conversations involving government officials and institutions were less than convincing, but not to a point where one cannot suspend disbelief and enjoy the story. The science portion of this book was by far the strongest element, which is not surprising given the fact that the author is involved in real life science, according to his bio on the back cover.

I found the characters and the writing style in this book to be the weakest elements. All the female central characters are conventionally sexy and wind up in bed with whichever of the central male characters with whom they spend significant time alone. While the female physicist is nicely stereotype-busting as a sexy, well dressed lady who happens to also be a fantastic theoretical physicist, but her character is either too flat for her to have much personality, or the narrator only understands her at a more surface level. We see a lot about what she and the other pretty female characters are wearing, but not enough of their inner selves to round them out into fully developed characters.

The somewhat weak, flat characters might be less noticable if the writing was smoother and if there was less filler to clog the story and prevent the plot from building momentum. The author falls into the same trap as one of his characters, "trying to catalogue facts without any idea which might be useful." As a result this book sort of hangs halfway between being plot driven and being character driven, and only the science keeps it afloat. The result is still an enjoyable book, but not enough to earn it a 5 star rating from me. I still do recommend it, though, especially if you like cool science ideas with your fiction.
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