Whilst I enjoyed the writing style, the humour, the, the future technology and all of that, I couldn't help but feel a little bit cheated at the ending. There's also that irritating thread of ennui you get when working with nearly immortal characters, a coldness seems to creep into their mindsets and things end up reduced to numbers rather than feelings. That did alternate well with the historical stuff, to be fair. I found the sentience of the machine at a bit of a remove. perhaps a deeper reread one day will reveal more subtext that I have glossed over.