Stephenson has a fine imagination for fantastic technologies, and the effect of these technologies on the future world and its inhabitants. Worth at least three stars just for that. The plot, could use a bit of buffing. The ending was, as other reviewers note, a bit of a let down. ( )

Was good but not as good as snow crash ( )

simply brilliant ( )

Seriously this book put me off reading for quite some time - I tried a number of times to get into it but just couldn't. It has a number of plots kicking off but most at a snails pace and the one that does finally crack the inertia of the book and gets going pretty much stops once you actually have a reason to start turning the pages. I hate it when I give up on a book and especially one from my favorite genre but of the many hundreds of books I have read this joins the scrap heap of three in total which I couldn't finish. Hopefully some day I will try again but probably not. ( )

I think this book would be classified Science Fiction with elements of Fantasy. There are a lot of technical devices which are designed to protect the individual societies, manufacture needed articles and create food (these last two are in the home), among a lot of other things which I won’t try to explain—mainly because I found this part of the novel difficult to comprehend. The main story involves a very young street urchin girl who accidentally receives a book that is interactive and will teach her many things. This is the part of the book I really enjoyed as she learns not only to cope with the bewildering world but eventually becomes someone who will impact this world. In spite of some of the frustration I felt in trying to unravel all the threads in this very dense story (almost as many threads as on LT :-) )which slowed down my reading—am I’m not fast to begin with—I never lost interest in the book and in some ways enjoyed it. I started it as a library book but finally bought it because I know I will want to read it again to see if some of my questions will be answered the second time around when I know somewhat what to look for. ( )