Thank you, this was exactly what I needed!
The only fantasy I could stomach so far was the Discworld series and Game of Thrones. For some reason I get hung up on magic otherwise.
Thanks for notes, I gave the first lines a quick skim (I try not to watch trailers for movies either, rather go in blind based on word of mouth or hype), and I think I'll give Service Model a shot, then go into Shroud when I'm ready.
And great Stephenson thread as well, btw. I'll be coming back to this in the future.