It is sort of like when my kids talked me into to reading Harry Potter and I gave half way through the first book. Not because it was bad but it was a kids book and I don't really enjoy kids books. He tried telling me that it gets better in the fourth book but sorry I have to little time to read to wait for the fourth book for it to get good and frankly did not see enough in the first book to make me think struggling through to the fourth was worth my time.
Same thing with Stephenson. His other books may be great but from what I saw in best known book there was enough there to warrant more of my time.