I’m not sure what to make of this book. In terms of history and the individuals involved, it’s pretty depressing. In terms of mathematics, there isn’t much. There was the thrill of connection when the Japanese mathematicians Taniyama and Shimura (of the Taniyama-Shimura conjecture) pop up — this was crucial in Andrew Wiles’ proof of FLT. And there’s the hilarious Bourbaki episode, we need more of these!
At the very least, I’ll look up what the conjectures are (though I doubt how much I’ll understand), and this puts algebra back on my radar…