It's building up to a tricky denouement, but if you're not also enjoying the journey, I'd say it's not for you. Some of what I like about Vinge:

- Imaginatively exploring grand futures.

- Evocative hints you have to fill in yourself.

- Intelligent characters.

- Computer security as an often central concern.

- Tightness. There's a reason he barely manages a novel a decade.

- The prose style just breathes sense-of-wonder to me.