Pre-ordered it at Fictionwise (already spent the micropay kickback too) and plan on reading it this weekend. Like most of his stuff. Didn't find the Baroque Cycle to bad but not the best either.

This new one sounds like it could be a good combination of what he was trying to do with the Cycle books and what he is best at (which is a type of cynical future view of "man vs everyone else").

And yea, Snow Crash is the one to read if you don't know him. I can't think of anyone in to modern fiction, reading or writing, that hasn't read that book. Though to be honest, now it's starting to feel dated since the tech and society is moving closer to the fiction he was dealing with.