I usually like John's books, but for some reason this one didn't vibe with me. Maybe because the whole things feels… too easy? You know how it will end, there is no real danger for the clueless protagonist. Every character seems either too smug or too dumb. Human lives are extremely cheap, and there are no real consequences for their deaths. It's not a bad book, but maybe I need more "grounded" stories at the moment (which is a bit weird as the previous book I read was Stross' "Empire Games", a book about a multi-dimensional cold war escalation, but still it felt more "real").