"Would you like to reset the default mode to not tell you when you are breaking the law?"

A brilliant way to end 2012. I was reading whilst other members of the household watched a very sad end to a long-running soap opera and my chuckles and giggles did not go down very well at all. I couldn't help myself though, things were just very funny for a reason hard to define and even harder to pin down in writing - but it was done here.

"Today, people have tried to kill me, the police are looking for me, and I've just discovered every Easter of my childhood, I ate one of my relatives with mint jelly. I'm just fine."

The opening chapter is brilliantly done, you get a laugh a minute from when they sit down at the negotiating table and the rest of the book has some pretty amazingly funny moments too.The end of the fourth chapter was perhaps the best in terms of dramatic tension and chapter 7 I think was the funniest of the book, serious overtones notwithstanding.

The ending was a little spoiled by the revelation of the inner ceremonial workings, which made it clear how things were going to turn out before the big climax. Still, that's my only issue in what otherwise is a very appealing, very enjoyable, Humanity wins work of science fiction. Loved it.