I managed to force myself through "Book 1" and just hit the midpoint where it becomes labeled "Book 2".  For those who read it a while ago, El just murdered Sophia and they both got scanned into the simulation.

The real-world struggles were boring enough, but I found the Ye Olde Norse Saga verbiage of the virtual-world stuff, with Edgog "spake"-ing and the new pantheon stuff to be jaw-grindingly cringeworthy.  And it didn't really help when he shoehorned some "trans" lunatic in, even if heshe is just a minor footnote so far with brief mentions at only two points, probably done at the insistence of the publisher to cater to their DEI department.  Then again, Stephenson seems to have gone whole-hog leftist with the "heartland USA" being a warzone of gun nuts and religious retards literally crucifying heretics, while Seattle is briefly portrayed as more of a shining spotless utopia.

But politics aside, I just find the "this family foundation is suing the other family foundation and there's legal griping about someone's will and his end-of-life directives" and the "saga-esque" stuff just boring to tears.

Is there any point in reading further?  Back in the 1990s I used to jump on every Stephenson book and read it through in a few hours, but post-Cryptonomicon (my favorite novel) they all drag out forever.

Not that I can tell.  Unless endless pages devoted to the "life" of the deceased as it learns to drift around in a virtual world endlessly with nothing much happening.  And in Neal Stephenson style, all of it overly wordy.

Stephenson has gone from being at the top of my list of favorite authors, to me cringing every time I buy his latest, knowing it may be unreadable.

Thanks;  yeah, I usually make it to about the two-thirds point before giving up, but this one was a struggle to get past the first quarter.