Influential

In an opinion poll of the US Library of Congress This was found out to be the second most influential book of history in the US, after the Bible.
I am currently in Buenos Aires, and here in Argentina it is only this year did to uncensored version of this book is published for the first time, and this almost 50 years after its first publication in the US. That should tell you something about its controversial nature.
As for the story, I am surethat the manyother critiques of this book have Given you a rough idea about it. Personally, I have always found many of the issues and speeches in the book to be somewhat redundant, and the fervor with Which the Objectivists defend the book to be just a tad hysterical. To criticize the book or the author is akin to blasphemy in the eyes of many Randroids.
The problem in my view has always been that, as Rand herself once said, this is more of a philosophical than expose a literary novel, and That shows quite often. As far as literary works go, the author's previous novel 'The Fountainhead' is far superior. The philosophy is the same, but the author Concentrated on the story first, instead of worrying about how to propagate Solely her philosophy.
Regardless of whether or not you agree with Mrs. Rand's views, this book is too important to simply ignore. It would be like ignoring the Communist Manifesto, Just Because you are an anti-communist, or the Bible Because you are an atheist. For all collectivists: 'Know Thy Enemy', and for all individualists: 'Get it' if for no other reason than its importance for the individualist and libertarian movement. Individualism has too few advocates as it is, and this book has quite Possibly laid the foundations of a rivival of the old liberal tradition in the Decades after its first publication.