This book was a little slow going at first, but once you get into the language and world of the "concent," you're fully immersed. And just when you think you've fully acclimated to that new universe, that's when things start to really get good, as the plot expands beyond the walls of the concent and into the wider world (and cosmos) beyond.

The story itself serves as an allegory of the nature of Stephenson's best writing--a perfect blend of the cerebral and plot driven pulp. The playful "dialogs" of these intellectual monks as they figure out the meaning of the universe is like of a band of vegan Berkeley students out on a quest to design an art car for Burning Man. It's all great fun, while hinting at something substantially and mystically deeper.