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I felt Crytonomicon as more than an info dump but Neal allows so many clever turns of phrase you can just hear the editors screaming at him. I like that stuff but I still have mental scars from writing classes in college trying to beat those clever phases out of my own work.
Over, by surreal I mean Ken stereotypes and uses traits or tags to the moon. The leading characters are just not human enough. The strong have no weakness and the weak have no strength. It all comes across a little too Disney for my taste. Everything is wrapped in a little bow for the reader and good triumphs evil. Some of his point-of-view choices, and the scenes themselves, are needlessly prurient and juvenile. Not many. And not enough to ruin the books for me.
I'm now midway into World Without End and I think his handling of characters is improved. I like how he framed the entire first book with a ship wreck and the second book appears to have its own overarching frame.
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