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I thought it was an interesting book. I agree with the good but not stellar and rated it 3.5 stars. I know very little about Greek history and mythology, and it's not something that especially interests me. However, I enjoyed reading the book and was happy to be exposed to a topic that I probably wouldn't have picked out on my own. Therefore, I'm glad it was just enough detail to hold your interest and not too dry.
I liked the human aspect of the story and how it was structured on the biography of 3 key people who all had different backgrounds to contribute to the story of Linear B's decipherment. Just imagine how passionate these people were in pursuit of solving "the locked room mystery" as the author referred to it. It wasn't just passion but I think also obsession which fueled them. There was no prize money as motivation.
What I found particularly interesting is that ultimately it was solved not by being competitive and secretive but by openness and collaboration that helped to link the different pieces of information that different people knew. It's amazing that the decipherment was done by hand without computers or a bilingual inscription.
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