I'm lukewarm on Stephenson, tbh. His early books are great, but I find that his later works seem more like a product of him being interested in a topic, then he does some world building on top, and attached a fairly basic plot. Seveneves is a great example: Interesting premise, great world building, but in all honesty I found the book pretty boring.

I read Rise and Fall of the d.o.d.o a while back, and I find that one a lot better. For starters I found the epistolary writing style highly entertaining. Secondly, I suspect that Nicole Gallands participation really added to the story, precenting it from becoming another "world building first, story second"-book.