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Title: 1st half: brilliant; 2nd half: severely wanting
Review: This novel starts off as a brilliant exploration of determinism and randomness. The characters bounce from one part of the 2nd World War to another, often with little idea as to why they've been told to do the things they've been ordered to do. The whole aura of the writing is distinctly Pynchonesque, although with not as much satire.But, by the end of the 1st half of the book, Stephenson's origins as a thriller writer really start to come to the fore. It seems that he can't help but put in a rather cheesy plotline about treasure-finding. A disappointment after such high hopes.
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