I had no idea this was a new release, but it’s definitely timely: for instance, his characters can consult their pandemic apps to gauge their relative safety among others and determine whether they need to wear masks, or distance, or both; and one of the main characters has lost his sense of smell to covid-23 or something. I really enjoyed this book, which I consider Stephenson at his best and most focused; none of the thought experiments were really that wild, the characters were confidently drawn, and the casual references to realistic details (I too know what it looks like to see ski lights floating disembodied above the Vancouver skyline!) made the fantastic elements that much more believable. A great thought experiment about fighting climate change and sea level rise, and just some of the geopolitical fallout that could result.