Clearly, Stephenson is a wizard. He uses language with flair and facility; his plots engross instantly, progressions never fail to entrance, his imagination never disappoints.

So allow the slightest criticism: this book strays into the purple in ways that he manages to avoid in other works. Metaphors are at times flowery and then some, and some sections have the slightest crumb of flabbiness.

I've heard the flaws make the diamond.

So, make this a 4.9 out of 5. None of this is to say that this book is to be missed--it is wonderfully entertaining, and beautifully written, another melange of the ruminations of one of the masters of the modern age.

I read it all the way and enjoyed it a lot. BUT. It was very disjointed in places, and many events are unexplained. It badly needs a glossary for words he invented and you also need to have a big dictionary handy. There were words that I could not even find on the internet. I love learning new words, but I also like to be able to find them! That said, I tend to agree with the other reviews about the creativity, great characters, etc. He does go into a lot of detail, and if you don't like it you can just scan it. I am reading Quicksilver and the details in that are likewise numerous.

This book, which I read when it first came out and gave up on it as the story line is very complex and at the time I was turn off by the whole Dummer sex story line.

Now 10 years later and a father of 4 I found that I really liked the book and how it dealt with children and education. Once I was hooked my that, the rest was worth while.

I still dislike the dummer sex story line, it is just not to my taste. Also some story lines just seem to go away others seem to come out of nowhere. So no 5 stars but better than 98% of the trash that is sold these days.
If your liked this book try John Barnes he address some of the same child educations issues but in a lot less pages.

The story line is kind of a sophisticated version of the "savior" story -- only this time, the "savior" is a little girl in her journey to womanhood in an age of advanced nanotech. I have to admit being a bit partial to this kind of story (also found in the Matrix and Dune and even Jesus, btw). Nevertheless, the book tells this story in an extremely refreshing way. There are many relationships and story lines that sort of weave themselves together to finish in stunning conclusions. I remember the exact point in the book where I became completely sucked in. It was one event after a fairly interesting but a bit slow beginning of about 20 pages. That particular event hit me like a ton of bricks because I in no way suspected it was coming. Likewise, the story line did that to me many times thereafter! I even found myself crying a couple of times because I just didn't expect what ended up happening. The story keeps moving, jumping from one character's story to the next, all of which ultimately end up being weaved together for a stunning finish and complex story line. After the first 20 pages, it is impossible to put the book down. I enjoyed greatly reading the author's style, which is characterized by very rich and dense writing -- not something you ordinarily expect from fiction. As a feminist, I also enjoyed very much the strong female characters and the martial arts didn't hurt any either! I wish I could give this book 6 stars! I wish I wasn't done with it yet and I was sad when it ended. It's not too often that a book like this comes along. Enjoy!