I jumped into the book after hearing all the buzz as it seemed like the big scifi hit of 2025. Killer premise and for the most part the fast pacing works... for the first third or so. But it you can feel the short story anthology vibe as it goes on and becomes practically a disconnected series of vignettes, and even the central idea itself loses cohesion. The Big Bad Thing has so many manifestations that it feels like monster of the week rather than a true full book that holds onto a core sharply executed identity. Less a grand thesis than a series of isolated short form thrills.

So the long and short of it is, definitely worth it for the first third and dimishing returns after that.

As for the short film, I think it's great for what it is, gets better and better as it goes and is worth the short watch. Fascinating seeing the visual depictions of the stuff the book talks about both foreground and background.

Oh wow, They filmed it! Twice even!

hn discussion about the written versions

* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41224225

A different version by different director/actors:

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-IiVeGAydE