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Why is this a classic? Why do we still read this? Most classics are about some important social or emotional issue. What is this book even about?

I am mildly enjoying this. But in general, I'm just not sure what to make of it. It's so different from what I normally read that it defies expectations.

The story here seems to be mostly in the service of atmosphere. I don't picture many people reading this for the story. I can't imagine how you'd keep track of all the characters, and frankly, the layout and art are more interesting anyway.

I feel like I would like this book a lot if I had a clear idea of what Camus was going for. I almost feel like I would've had to have been alive when it was written.

I can't decide if this is a really well-written apathetic character or really badly-written minimalism.

I think of this one roughly what I thought of the last volume. The superhero cameos are weird, the art is good but confusing, and the story is kind of intriguing but not actually that engaging.

Boring as this book is, it's very well-written. Shinn did a very good job of communicating Zoe's rage, I really did feel it.

That said, the fact that we are not at all approaching a climax is sort of a problem.

Eughhh, I'm not going to like this. Lots of infodumps, and the writing has this pretentious tone to it that I see in a lot of adult books and I hate. I love Patrick Ness' YA, but he's just not good at writing adult books.

The only way I can read this is as the life of a horribly depressed person who's too apathetic to care about anything. Any other reading of this novel totally fails.

This is pretty cool, but just like with the last Sandman book I read, I can't imagine ever wanting to reread this. It's not a wonderful story or anything, just a nice atmosphere.

This is basically what I expected a sports manga to be like, which is to say, not very good. I thought maybe the crossdressing element would add some interest to the story, but no, it just turns out to be an excuse for an asinine and badly-written romance.

On the whole, this was quite informative. Not perfect by any means, but by my judgement at least, this will have more positive effect on the world than negative.

I guess I would've liked to know a lot more about his research methods, and how he got all this information he's giving us. This is still quite informative, don't get me wrong, but I'm being nagged by a doubt that I should take what he says with a grain of salt.

I don't even know what this is supposed to be. Perhaps by lit class will shed some light on it? I just don't know what I'm supposed to be gaining from reading this.

This is another one of those books where I can't decide if I find it really interesting or really pretentious. Given how the rest of this year has gone for my reading, it'll probably turn out to be more of the latter than the former. But I haven't quite given up yet.

Other than a few language choices I'm not a fan of, this seems really informative. It's also exceedingly difficult to read. I have a thick skin, but man, this is not an easy one.

Does anything happen in this book? It's all boring, overly-complicated court politics, and I don't care about it. Man, this book started out so promising, it's really disappointing that Shinn just had no idea where to take the story.

Well, this at least has the potential to be interesting. Weird writing, it's kind of intriguing.

This court drama is so boring. It's like A Game of Thrones with no stakes. And I don't even like Game of Thrones.

I wonder how accurate the assertions about Thai culture are. I like that Bales doesn't judge Thai men in a way that implies American men aren't just as bad - he tends to be objective when talking about the holders, sympathetic when talking to about the slaves. It's a good tone for what he's going for.

More than halfway through, and there are still no stakes or forward momentum. What is it exactly that I'm supposed to enjoy about this?

I want this to be a non-fiction book so bad. That would be fascinating. Because much as this is a terrible novel, there are some very good ideas here - it's not a totally convincing utopia, but Skinner might be onto something. But oh god, this is beyond tedious to read as a novel.

Well, this is gonna be depressing. But I am glad that Bales has already made clear that 1.) The solution to slavery cannot involve buying slaves from their holders and 2.) Slavery can't be fixed by buying the right brand of chocolate bar or cell phone. Those were important things to say right off the bat, at least for me.

This is probably the most boring book I've ever read to be also very technically competent and well-written.

I'm not sure if Skinner gets the point of democracy. Different people have different needs, and part of the goal of democracy is to make sure those needs get addressed. A small society like Walden Two does address this, admittedly, but it's weird that Skinner ignores this.

This argument between Fraizer and Castle holds no weight, because Fraizer is such an obvious self-insert. It's not thought-provoking to me, because I know that Castle is rigged to lose. If the author didn't fully agree with either person, that would be interesting - that's what interesting arguments in novels are like. But when the only purpose of your novel is to further your political agenda, everything sucks.

This is an exceptionally functional novel. It performs the basic jobs of a novel very well - Shinn's prose is excellent, Zoe is a well-rendered protagonist, and the worldbuilding is very well-executed. However, this is (so far) not at all an interesting novel. The pacing is too slow, there's no sense of urgency, and there's no reason to be emotionally invested in this.

So apparently, Skinner has chosen to make the entire novel nothing but infodumps. Wonderful. The sad irony is, this world isn't even that immersive. I get no sense of culture from it, and we've barely seen anyone from Walden Two except Fraizer. The world feels like a cardboard construction to further Skinner's political goals (which by the way it is).

Why is Zoe not more worried about getting caught? Shouldn't she be constantly paranoid? Why is there so little tension? Shinn wrote solid stakes, but does nothing with them.

I feel like I would've loved a serious nonfiction book about this society. That would both be less boring and more successfully prove Skinner's point.