It's really good, but it's just different. If you're expecting another book that defines a new genre, forget it. Set many years before Neuromancer, if it's even in the same universe, the book deals with the cutthroat race to control the beginnings of cyberspace technology. Your basic cyberpunk elemental fringe characters like bicycle couriers and street people living in a huge mass under the Golden Gate Bridge like the Lo-Teks of Johnny Mnemonic figure prominently. Then there's one of the coolest characters in fiction: Warbaby. Let's hope Ice T never gets to play this character! However, there does seem to be an appeal to the younger market with the cute little character of Chevette. I guess, all in all, that this book is kind of a low-fat, watered-down Neuromancer -- a kind of "Virual Lite."