It gets better on subsequent reads but it's not the easiest thing to get into indeed. The first time I read it, I found the virtual world stuff annoying and har

It gets better on subsequent reads but it's not the easiest thing to get into indeed. The first time I read it, I found the virtual world stuff annoying and hard to understand. But it grew on me on the re-read since I knew what he was trying to do and because with Neal Stephenson it's always about the details and little side plots and not about moving the main plot forward. I had the same experience with the Baroque cycle on first read. I've since re-read that many times and I'm already looking forward to picking up Fall and Termination Shock for more re-reads in a few years.