the final volume had the same formula as the last two and should have been another amazing novel, but somehow came out flat. the story has tremendous scope, weaving many threads together. the tech seemed like a hoge-poge of new (neural micromachines) and old (mesh wifi networking). more time was spent on character development, but im not sure the story deserved 600 pages. if you're interested in the series, by all means read the first book.