Neal Stephenson is one of my favorite authors — Snow Crash is one of the best cyberpunk novels ever written (Stephenson was responsible for the concept of virtual avatars operating in digital environments), Diamond Age anticipates the coming age of nanotech and distributed manufacturing and Cryptonomicon was a very cool, very fun book about private currencies, cryptography and Nazi gold.
That said I didn’t enjoy his Baroque Cycle; I tried to get through Quicksilver three times before giving up; the slow-moving plot and archaic writing style just didn’t grab me. Reamde, however, sees Stephenson returning to his old form with a modern day novel about the intersection of virtual economies in massively multiplayer online games with international gangsters. It’s a fun read that delves into modern-day issues, and it’s a treat for anyone who’s a video gamer.