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Spoiler of structure of book included. Though if you’re reading other reviews, you’ve probably already picked up on this... The one drawback I saw to this book nobody else mentions. It’s a little slow on the onset. Still engaging and humorous at times, but for me I had to push through a bit. The things people complain about I found impressive and were my favorite parts of the book. Stephenson writes himself into being able to switch from techy sci fi writing style to epic mythical legend style in the same book. I’ve never seen a book do this so well. It’s not even a simple matter of switching to fantasy, but adds a mythic legend component that is both historical and action filled. (professional critic Paul Di Filippo compares it to Tolkien’s simirilian) His for-shadowing of the sci fi/mythic legend duality through the character of Dodge and his interest in mythology, is spot on (explaining the change in language) The various workings and critters of the fantasy world are engaging. It is humorous, sweet, and with an incredible amount of exploration. Maybe some of the bad reviews are because people wanted a straight tech sci fi book? I thought it was wonderful. Maybe because I like both sci fi and epic legend fantasy? I also didn’t know that the writing style was going to change so drastically because I simply read straight on from finishing reamde. For me, the surprise was awesome. Edited to add the name of Paul Di Filippo then fix the spelling a couple times