I'm actually further along than I thought, possibly I was expecting the balance of story pre- and post-time skip to be quite different. So I'm closeish to done, about 150 pages to go.
I come into this book with baggage, because Stephenson has had issues with gender in past books -- his women tend to be absent, entirely defined by their relationships with men, or suffer from Heinlein Syndrome (beautiful, brilliant, accomplished, and no depth whatsoever). I detected a whiff of Heinlein Sydrome at first, but it evened out later, especially as more characters were introduced, so overall I think he's done fairly well. I like that the women tend to have strong voices and different types of relationships with each other.
I enjoyed Doob as an expy of Neil DeGrasse Tyson, obvious as it was. :) I'm still trying to decide if Sean Probst was also supposed to be someone specific. I see many similarities to Ilon Musk, but I don't think of him as paranoid about security.
I'm also still trying to decide if the book is pessimistic or optimistic about human nature, and whether I agree with what it's trying to say either way.
Re. Orphan Black: it is definitely an intense show, not always easy to watch. Worth it, in my opinion, but I can understand wanting to be in the mood for it.
Re: That gif is the greatest of all time
I come into this book with baggage, because Stephenson has had issues with gender in past books -- his women tend to be absent, entirely defined by their relationships with men, or suffer from Heinlein Syndrome (beautiful, brilliant, accomplished, and no depth whatsoever). I detected a whiff of Heinlein Sydrome at first, but it evened out later, especially as more characters were introduced, so overall I think he's done fairly well. I like that the women tend to have strong voices and different types of relationships with each other.
I enjoyed Doob as an expy of Neil DeGrasse Tyson, obvious as it was. :) I'm still trying to decide if Sean Probst was also supposed to be someone specific. I see many similarities to Ilon Musk, but I don't think of him as paranoid about security.
I'm also still trying to decide if the book is pessimistic or optimistic about human nature, and whether I agree with what it's trying to say either way.
Re. Orphan Black: it is definitely an intense show, not always easy to watch. Worth it, in my opinion, but I can understand wanting to be in the mood for it.