To be honest, I liked this book, not for the story itself, but for the philosophy that seeped into it at some points; those ended up taking over my interest and got me to skip action (in as much as there was any) and start actively looking for the introspective moments. 
 As for the story? Well, What to say? It felt like someone was trying to force a ball that doesn't fit into a box: if you try hard enough, you just might make it, unless the box is made of cardboard. 
 But I did get caught up in the edge vs center nation argument (what, five pages in the whole book?), and that's all I really remember from it. And I though it was freaking awesome. :-)