I thought Fall was outstanding; the apes, MOAB, and Ameristan parts were remarkably relevant, and the last part was fun.
I really liked everything about Fall except the main plot. The Ameristan parts felt almost prophetic - that’s the book I wanted to read.
(spoilers) the part where Dodge's e-consciousness conceives of consciousness starting from static was...a tedious read hah. Good summary.
I think the concepts were pretty neat, I agree. However, it felt like two books in one. I will admit that I'm not a fantasy reader -- aside from LOTR, I'm not a big fan of the genre. Spending so much time on that was just not interesting to me. If that entire section was missing, the book would've been extremely compelling.
But to each their own! :)
This seems to be a thing that Stephenson likes: The Diamond Age has apparently deliberate significant changes in style and genre across it, Cryptonomicon is part very-near-future tech thriller and part-1940s spy thriller, Seveneves (as noted elsewhere here) has a big genre change some way through, and arguably The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O also blends a few different genres together, some of them historical. He's certainly more egregious about it in Fall, but it's something he obviously likes doing...