Not my favourite Neal Stephenson book. His style has certain features (or flaws, if you want), and here they seemed a bit more pronounced. Also, he has apparently written a book, then decided it needs another book to explain how things got set up like that. The result is massive, and there's plenty of detailed explanations of various things.

The main premise is really interesting though, and I found the first two parts in particular gripping. The beginning of the third part, not so much, but fortunately it picked up speed in the end. All in all worth the rather hefty amount of time reading this book required. For Neal Stephenson fans, but the rest of you should probably start from somewhere else in his bibliography.