I have read all of KSR's previous books and have always been able to get past some of his more meandering passages. Not this time! He really lost me in the first half of the book somewhere in the park. Irrelevant subplots and characters were very distracting. I also found the science to be much more superficially presented in this book than in his others. This book needed more focus on the main plot and on the science. I will not be reading the next installment.