Really happy I got around to reading this book-- as good as sci-fi as had been promised by the hype. The only thing holding it back from 5 stars was the difficulty I had in following along sometimes. I think this is likely partly due it being a translation, and actually the few pages written by the translator about how he approached translating such an ambitious book shed some light on the difficulties there. But nonetheless, this told a really engaging story, taking lots of elements from across sci-fi past and telling it in such a fresh and new way that was really engaging. I'm excited to continue reading the series, as well as watching whatever TV show/movie inevitably comes to the United States from this.