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In the prologue Larson explains that he was inspired to tell this story by the events of Jan 6th as a way to compare the current election certification crisis with the last time it happened in order to show the mood of the country and the factors that lead to its happening. After completing the story I feel like he largely succeeded. Through his usual brand of narrative history telling he focuses in on a few points that illustrate how the different sections of the nation were thinking and the divide between them. While I feel like the telling of the southern viewpoint is well told, I think it is pretty far from today’s political climate. I find it more akin to the current denialism of climate change and vaccinations. In both cases you have an opposition that has convinced itself of viewpoint that is vulnerable to rational arguments using facts and has built itself a defense built on narrative story telling and identity-based cultural elements. I found his recounting of the Chivalry and the southern honor culture well done in this regard. Overall I really liked this book and feel Larson has earned another feather in his cap with this one on narrative history telling.

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The story telling was very personal telling that gave a snapshot of several key figures lives including Isaac Asimov, Rob Heinlein, and L Ron Hubbard but most of all Joseph Campbell. It does not try to tell the story of all science fiction or tell an overly broad story but for the lives it focuses on it lays out the story of their lives and their interactions in a clear and thoughtful way. An avid science fiction fan, I grew up reading some of these stories and remember them fondly. That said, I only read a fraction of the books they discuss in this story. That said, I did not feel like that diminished the story or in any way hindered my reading of this fascinating tale. In the end, while I was left wanting to hear these stories in the broader context of science fiction as a whole, it was a satisfying story that felt complete in and of itself.

This books is amazing in many ways but is hard to compare to other more conventional stories and novels. It has a unique narrative structure and a radically chaotic use of language. I have to say I was skeptical at first and nearly gave up on this at several points, but it drew me in and by the end I was in love with its weird, quirky natures. The story itself is disjointed and a bit uninteresting when distilled from the way it is told and language used to tell it. That said it draws you in and is strong enough to hold up the novel through what is a marathon length telling. A lot of what happens in the book seems to be in service of some other purpose than serving to move the story along. It seems to be making points about society, human nature, morality and humanity in an almost back handed way that seems like an afterthought at first, but as this pattern becomes more and more common, it becomes apparent that these statements are more the point than the telling of the actual story. I loved this book and do not regret the 60 hours I put into listening to it.

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