[Apocryphon]

> It just happens to indulge his maximalist tendencies in a smaller page budget, and fails to get the best of either a short novel or a big messy "idea-novel."

I mean, Snow Crash still works great as an adventure yarn, right up until the entire caper is resolved by Hiro running a program he was programming in the background between scenes.

The Diamond Age was much more meandering and plotted in a confusing way, even if it had better world-building.