This book... I wasn't really sure about even before I picked it up. The premise didn't really make sense to me. I really felt that it just was trying to throw a "technical" layer onto something that probably shouldn't have that... 
 But, I started reading it, and got enough into it that by the time I started to bog down on it, I really felt that I still wanted to get it read. 
 I think that this story was one which could have been told in 10% of the length. There is far too much little details that don't much add to the story for my taste, in fact really doesn't add anything to the story at all really. 
 The end of the book was almost worth reading through the rest of the book, other than the fact that it felt like much of the book, that even the end (which was far better paced than any other part of the book) was really a lot more of "too much, too much." Still... I read it. And yes, the end was really my favourite part.