Richard Powers is the author of some of my favorite books EVER but I just cannot deal with the preciousness and pretentiousness of the language in this one! He clearly found his rhythm and voice in later work? I thought it would be fascinating to read an older book imagining the future of AI in the ChatGPT moment we find ourselves in. I just can’t get into this book though! I think I also find it hard to trust a “hostage in the Middle East” story from pre- 9/11, pre-Arab Spring, pre- decades of forever war (and CIA torture and etc)?! The stakes and politics of such a story are just so wildly different now?