(his worst offender: Diamond Age, which was beautifully begun and oddly ended).
How so? I loved the ending, and thought the beginning (about Nell's father) was sort of an annoying "take that" to Cyberpunk classics.
I'm glad you liked it. On the whole, I also enjoyed the book. I only vaguely remember now (years after reading), but wasn't there some sort of undersea modified-human group-mind entity at the end? I more enjoyed the first 2/3 of the book, before the disjointed action-movie climax (a similar proportion holds for my enjoyment of Anathem).
Stephenson is still one of my favorite authors (although for some reason I've still only read the first of his Baroque series).
This is a place to consolidate book recommendations.
I'm reading The Logic of Failure and enjoying it quite a bit. I wasn't sure whether I'd heard of it here, and I found a post here called Great Books of Failure, an article which hadn't crossed my path before.
There's a recent thread about books for a gifted young teen and a slightly less recent discussion of books on cogsci thread which might or might not be found by someone looking for good books.
So, what books or lists of books do you recommend?