he did it to me again!
Neal Stephenson tricked me again... he wound me up with a good book and then STOPPED. WRITING. Cryptonomicon is a good, if highly nerdy, romp, until he decides, "OK, i'm tired of writing about protagonist A, so i'll just kill him off. Hmm, and protagonist B was going to get married, but i have these loose ends, so i'll have him tie them up. That frees me up to use protagonist C to... oh, fuck it. Explosions. Sex. More explosions. Exeunt." That bit about the psychopath with the bow and arrows was so random and gratuitous, i still don't get the point. FUCK YOU NEAL STEPHENSON AND YOUR BROKE CYCLE SEE IF I READ IT `CAUSE I WON'T. JERK.
Maybe that's the thing... LucasArts, in a hurry to put out KOTOR 2, hired Neal Stephenson to write its ending.