I read other reviews and did not disagree with many of the people who gave the book four stars, but I did not feel their pain either. Maybe the book is too long, maybe some of its subplots could be cut, maybe the info dumps are, in a way, intrusive. At the same time, none of that kept me from enjoying the characters and the story. I guess those things are not always drawbacks in my opinion for giving five stars, especially since I have not read anything else like this book. Gamers. Unions. The internet. Economics. Wow. 
 I don't know if it is YA, but I applaud any teen (or boring old fart like me for that matter) who tackles this. 
 I'm not sure how much of it is fact and how much of it is fiction, but all the characters and plots interested me. Sometimes I keyed into the info dumps, sometimes I didn't. 
 If Doctorow is covering territory others have crossed, I don't know about it. Thanks for the introduction, Cory. 
 I'm sure I'll read another Cory Doctorow novel in the future. I may take a closer look at science fiction in general.