I disagree, and since people seem to be piling on REAMDE, I just want to pipe up in defense of it. Having read most[1] of Stephenson's books, I think REAMDE is

I disagree, and since people seem to be piling on REAMDE, I just want to pipe up in defense of it. Having read most[1] of Stephenson's books, I think REAMDE is the best of them, or at least the second-best behind Cryptonomicon. It's less ambitious than most of his work, sure. But it is a lot harder to create a gripping and memorable book set in the present day, written in a conventional style, and without the benefit of speculative future technologies. With REAMDE he pulled it off, though. I have read a lot of light thriller-type novels in my day (mostly bought at airports in the pre-Kindle era, admittedly), and they are usually pretty hard to care about. Not so with REAMDE, though. [1] Anathem is in my Kindle queue, and I couldn't stay interested enough to get through the Baroque Cycle. Have read the rest, though.