Vinge is a master craftsman. The first few chapters are among the best constructed I've ever read – how he manages to start three separate narrative threads and timelines, slowly weaves them together in just the right tempo and level of explicitness so that the reader has the first revelatory "aha" moment just before the timelines actually converge, switching imperceptibly between mystery and suspense to keep us hooked, how all of this is mirrored in the spatial setup of the plot, and how it makes us feel empowered as readers – this is truly great storytelling.

But Vinge is also a libertarian in love with hacker culture, and this suffuses the rest story of the story to a degree that makes it a little flat and boring. Good (individuals, hackers, small-time heroes) and evil (state authority, bureaucrats, big-time posers) are little to easy to discern, and apart from one or two protagonists torn between loyalties there's not a lot of psychological depth on offer.

Nonetheless, a fun read – and a good reminder of how cyber- and counter-culture were deeply connected in the early 1980s through a shared libertarian ethos.