A deliberate error. Or not. A case of dyslexia? There is a good deal of interpreting going on, and a lot of it shows itself to be presumptuous. We are privy to that, of course. So, assumptions and expectations are generally, then, made evident. For instance, when reading an adventure story, one might expect the the hero to prevail in a valiant, graceful, expeditious way — at least, inevitably, i.e., despite certain initial setbacks. This expectation, here, is confounded. Although not entirely unrealized. But subjected to a good deal of “slippage”. The irony is that this confounding of heroic success, or precision of its execution, is so consistently done, that it itself becomes expected. What might be meant to confound, thereby, can become predictable. In fact, irritatingly so. It becomes somewhat tiresome when every time one of the “white hats” attempts to exact some sort of justice or retribution or gain freedom from the tyranny of the “black hats” that they bump up against something that interferes with their actions, and causes more damage. At the point when the “black hats” are finally dispensed with, it is at great cost indeed, and the cathartic satisfaction is minor. That may be the point.
Aside from a partly disappointing emotional journey, however, there is some great suspense and some lively action, as well as some very interesting, albeit oblique, meditations on causality, strategy, perceptions, economy, weapons, chivalry and grace. The latter is a fascination for me, and so I would tend to wish for more attention to that area. The suspense is served with a great deal of deferral, which is both entertaining and exasperating. It is never entirely clear who the central protagonist actually is, if there is indeed meant to be one, which is interesting and agreeable to me. It has a multinational cast, with even the terrorists being mixed (Middle-Eastern, Asian, African, American). The stars are, what might be called in a movie, character actors, who are variously Irish, Chinese, Hungarian. Zula functions in a way like Helen of Troy. She is the vessel for grace. Or is it vassal? (There is much mention of vassals in the context of the online game that is at the centre of the book — speaking of which, this is much like way the virtual game functions in Snow Crash — in fact, there is an early joke made about the relationship between the game in Snow Crash and 2nd Life, along with continuing meta-referential gags about authorship throughout). There is a good deal of environmental description, which I always find tedious.
A very well written book, which left me in some respects vaguely disappointed — likely a result of my own expectations. I remain a devoted fan, nonetheless.
