Written nearly 20 years later, this book is quite a bit better than the third and former last book of the series. It seems likely that there won't be another. I found it good, not great, and unlike the others, the plot here covers a lot more than just the game.

One of the things that confused the previous book was a ton of characters. This book has a more reasonable cast, but not a lot of growth. Previous books tried to keep up with technology and felt dated, this one waves hands over the "game" bits. It mostly succeeds in keeping a level of hard science - the setting is a colony on the moon. Also missing is the postscript, describing the ideas behind the book and real-world things.