Didn't take me as long as I feared. Not my favorite Stephenson and not one I'll reread, but not bad. ( )

Conflicted about this one. I came into this only having read [b:Snow Crash|830|Snow Crash|Neal Stephenson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1477624625s/830.jpg|493634] by Neal previously, and a long time ago at that. He has a digressive style of providing oodles of backstory in a convoluted way only to arrive, a few pages later, at the actual point. I think I loved this in the beginning of the book, when we are meeting characters and want to get to know them; it felt like a real understanding of the characters and a unique and fun way of showing who they were and why they do what they do. However, especially at the end it started to bog down the pacing. At a point in a thriller I think I want to just move along and reach a conclusion, but we still get exposition late in the game and it becomes overwhelming. This is despite having so much backstory, the characters still end up following the plot lines in a slightly contrived way, and it isn't clear to me at least why certain pairings or actions are taken except to ensure that everyone is where they needs to be for the book to conclude.

That said, the central sequences were brilliant and I enjoyed it mostly because of them. The twists there were great. I wish they had extended through to the end. ( )

An enjoyable mix of high-tech thriller elements, well woven together. ( )

An exciting thriller that quickly grabbed me, pulling me into a world of MMORPGs, hackers, organized crime, espionage, and international terrorism. Thought the final confrontation dragged on a little long and it strained my disbelief a little how much patience the bad guys had with the female protagonist, but overall I loved this book. ( )

As with many Neal Stephenson books, I picked this up quite a while ago and then put it down after the slow start failed to grab my interest. I finally went back to it in audio-book form, and once I got past the boring part, I did start getting into it (about 10% of the way through the book) and the momentum carried me through to the end. ( )