I didn’t originally have high hopes for this book given the authors other works don’t appear to follow a similar model and I was unfamiliar with the narrator. I was immediately impressed by the level of cheer and outright production value found in this book, it has a lot of “Character”: the scientific nihilist, the accepted failed experiment, the plucky apprentice. Definitely worth a read and while some jokes really beat you over the head and wear themselves out, others are beautifully set up and pay off to belly aching laughter.