so far this is a highly enjoyable slog. i forced myself to reread the first chapter, as the learning curve for the language and the world stephenson has created has extraordinarily long and hard. my enjoyment of this book has been cubed (at least) in doing this.i am well into the fourth chapter now and loving it, trying to find time to read at the expense of most everything else.seems like it will be quite some time till i am through, as it has taken a week to make it to page 200, but never once have i regretted starting it. my only regret is that i read so damn slow... this book is BRILLIANT!!!!seriously, I will have far more to say about it as I continue to digest it all and have time to write about it, but I can not recommend it highly enough. well worth the trying slog at the beginning that it has to be for everyone.