My "favorite" part of The Diamond Age was when he had a whole scene solely so one character could explain to the reader what another's (lame) motivation had been for the last half the book or so, as it had been in no other way established or explained up 'till then and the book was about to wrap up.

Every time I read a Stephenson novel I have to break through that first quarter to a third before I'm fully taken in. It's like a dog or cat finding a comfortable position to sleep in. Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon, all require me to push through that first part before I can get comfortable.

I had tried (and failed) to read Crypto about 3 times before I finally broke through and realised his plotting wasn't bad, he just couldn't set it up right, or something.

For all of my problems with Neal, The Big U is an amusing read.