I haven't read Vonnegut in a while. The last one I read, Bluebeard, was a slog, mostly because I just didn't love the main character. That said, the ending of Bluebeard completely paid off the time it took me to get there.

Sirens was almost the opposite. This one grabbed me from the first page and reminded me why I love Kurt Vonnegut's writing. I read through the first 40 pages at such a pace I actually stopped to see how long I'd been reading, and I jammed through the entire book faster than I have read a novel in years. All of that said, I finished the last "chapter" questioning some of Vonnegut's choices, pacing and timing of the "ending." Luckily for me, most of those issues were resolved with the lengthy epilogue.

There is a timeless quality to the writing style here, and it is easy to forget this book was first published in 1959. The speculative nature may seem a bit "old hat" at this point in time, but the succinct prose, deft characterizations and Vonnegut's wry sense of humor are timeless.