It generally just felt like the author threw a bunch of scifi concepts at the wall and hoped something would stick. By the end it was just a bunch of concepts scattered around in an attempt to make something that was greater than the sum of its parts; but, ultimately it failed and I didnt care at all about what happened - largely because the characters were extremely flat and left no impression on me and because I didn't care about the characters I didn't care about the impact of the overarching plot.  The only character with any personaity was 大史 (Big Shi) who overall had a fairly minor part to play. 

I really don't understand the people who have said this changed their world view. Now I've actually read it I'm keen to dive into that deeper. 

I was excited to read this as its so well regarded .... but it was just average.