No "Gravity's Rainbow"
I believe they call this "hysterical fiction" nowadays-- literature so beefed up with detail and plot intrigue as to offer some source of verisimilitude... however the merit in this type of literature starts with William Gaddis, then Pynchon, and finally David Foster Wallace.The point is those guys are hard to read, and the books are long so you as a reader can work through them with a concentration that's due to real art.Stephenson, however, is a hack, and is one tier above grocery store fiction. I read 50 pages of this book and put it down when i realized it is terrible writing. Don't waste your life on a book that doesn't pay off at all.