Rating:

Although some parts are very interesting, some parts are probably superfluous or lacking:

• The topics are widely ranged: From the beginnings of the IAS institute in Princeton, atomic bombs to cellular automatons
• Almost every relevant person gets a worthy introduction and description, with some interesting stories probably not that universally known
• The details are sometimes a bit too much. It contains a rather lengthy description about e.g. the grounds of the IAS, which is probably not that interesting for people reading the book for the story about the first computers
• Some technicalities lack depth, e.g. the von Neumann computer architecture was almost not explained at all, although it is still very relevant today and would have been easy to explain
• The technicalities that are described can at times be confusing, mostly because the given descriptions are confusing themselves. But the hints can lead one to look up the topics on other sources: One shouldn’t feel bad because he doesn’t understand everything right away, or from the book only