Personally, I just started Gibson’s Agency today. I gave up on Stephenson and his world-building years ago. Not knocking it mind you, as he still has his fans, but I just find that Gibson’s character driven stuff with a direct focus on story keeps me more interested.
Thanks for the suggestion. I just placed a hold on the first of that series.
Word of warning on The Peripheral, it's quite a plot to wrap your head around at first, as is usual with time-related stuff, but once you get rolling with it you won't put it down. It's typical Gibson, which I love.
And Agency reads like a hot knife through butter. I can't wait to see how he wraps it up in the third one, if that's what he's going for.
I just started it a few days ago. I’m really enjoying it. I thought cryptonomicon was his best work since it raised a lot of interesting societal questions “what’s the role of government if it can’t tax you (because all transactions are secure and anonymous)”? This new one seems to raise some new ones.
I read it last year. Stephenson is one of my favorite authors.
It drags at the end, Stephenson writes great books, but he's never figured out how to end one.