This was definitely Stephenson's most 'conventional' novel since Reamde, with both the pros and the cons that come with that. I found both the characters and the locations interesting and described in fascinating detail as ever with Stephenson. It suffered a little from a fairly quick and gripping start bogging down into a more drawn out middle, before ramping up well again from about the half way point.

I found the 'surprise' in this one really came from the lack of surprise. I was fully expecting a mid-book twist where the geoengineering goes wrong and some sort of chaos ensues... but no, that just never really came. I liked the shootout ending, but it did feel a little 'small' relative to the scale as of the book as a whole. I do wonder if he might consider a sequel to this one... I'd be delighted to dip back in to the lives of Saskia & Red & TR and the rest, or even further explore some of the side characters.

I dithered between 3 & 4 stars for this one... in the end I went with 4 because I did enjoy it throughout... more than Fall/Dodge in Hell for sure.... I'd probably rank it similarly to SevenEves, a little behind Reamde and obviously not in the same league as Cryptonomicon and the Baroque Cycle. One for the Stephenson fans, but probably not the most representative introduction to his work.