I wanted to like this. I've been making an effort to branch out more into science fiction, which is not usually been my genre (a caveat I always feel is kind of necessary) and it's been hit and miss. I love The Expanse and John Scalzi, not so much The Forever War. So it goes. But this I was specifically recommended because I wasn't a big fan of Ready Player One. I was told this was similar, but so much better, so I was intrigued.

First of all, I don't get the comparison to Ready Player One. They both contain a virtual reality and that's about it. Not that it has anything much to do with this review, but I've heard this comparison a few times and I just wanted to state that they're pretty much nothing alike.

I didn't like this book from the very beginning, but I didn't hate it either. I kept expecting it to get better as there was less exposition needed and maybe fewer fifteen page descriptions of delivering a pizza, which is how the book opens. It got worse.

None of the characters' motivations made sense. Hiro Protagonist, the hero protagonist (haha.), I guess wants to save the day? Or save his exgirlfriend? Or is just bored by his life and motivated by sheer curiosity? Who knows. The teenage courier YT wants drama or fun or to get paid or something along those lines. There's a mafia boss who is super attached to the teenage YT for ...reasons. I always thought that one was going to be explained, but the only thing I can come up with is that he's super impressed she delivered a pizza on time once. The bad guy wants revenge. And also to fuck YT. I could never figure out that second one except for Stephenson inserting some child rape fantasy. Their "date" came out of nowhere and culminated in the fifteen year old orgasming the second he stuck his dick in her, so that was thoroughly unpleasant. The dude's age was never mentioned directly, but I think he was meant to be in his twenties.

The whole thing was incomprehensible. And then, if you managed to keep going despite all of that, you get to the end where they explain what L Ron Hubbard (I forget the character's actual name, but let's be real) is doing by having Hiro Protagonist speak for about 20 straight pages of dialogue, interrupted briefly by the racist Chinese caricature and the mafia boss caricature asking questions. That's not an exaggeration. I went through to check and counted eight straight pages of dialogue with a single dialogue tag. In eight pages, the only two words that weren't dialogue were "Ng says." Who does that? I'm so confused who found this book tolerable, let alone enjoyable.

The one positive I have to say about it is that the construction of the virtual reality seemed very interesting and well done. It's not something I particularly care about, but I can see more tech inclined people appreciating that aspect. It's really detailed and at points very well thought out, in terms of the way avatars and the like are discussed. Apart from that, I saw nothing of value in this book.

Wouldn't recommend. Can't fathom what people get out of this. The racism, the random child rape fantasy, the incomprehensible writing, the absurdly long winded exposition. More power to you if you enjoy this, but I didn't.