Cobweb

I've read, so far, everything Neal Stephenson's written except the Baroque Cycle (I'm saving that for summer), and I can say that yeah, this isn't his best. He definitely wrote it, there are some things nobody can duplicate, no matter how well they know his work, but I have a feeling this has been a baby of his for a long time, something he wrote waaay before Zodiac and The Big U etc.

While this novel does not live up to the wild inventiveness and wacky humor that characterizes Stephenson's SF work, it is, in my opinion, still an above average thriller. The plot is compelling, the characters are fun, and the treatment of the various agencies and their motivations and bureaucratic techniques is nuanced (possibly based on Jewsbury's experience?

This book unfolds in typical Neal Stephenson style, with alternating chapters about seemingly unrelated characters whose lives increasingly interact with each other in unexpected ways. In this book, the characters are immensely likeable (to this reviewer, anyway) and their actions and feelings ring true--details that are funny and heart-warming, never too-clever or superfluous.