From my recollection (I haven't re-read it recently), it's pretty easy to skip the raw chem stuff if you're not interested. Though that may be a skill I acquir

From my recollection (I haven't re-read it recently), it's pretty easy to skip the raw chem stuff if you're not interested. Though that may be a skill I acquired from my youth misspent reading Alexandre Dumas and Jules Vernes (as writers of serials, padding chapters was a very common occurrence which makes for frustrating reads when you hit 5 pages of fishes in 20000 leagues under, the ability to quickly skim and skip is necessary to reach the end).