Nice writing, lots of scientific explanations, maybe a bit too much for me. After a moment I got bored with "what went wrong, oh it was that chemical reaction"... 
 It's very well done, seems very accurate, has interesting psychological dilemmas, in fact, this book is brilliant. So why didn't I enjoy it more ? 
 I have no scientific explanation for that bizarre fact. The alchemy just didn't work for me. I'll watch the movie though ;)