Instruct: Classify Amazon reviews into positive or negative sentiment
Query: Hard to believe people are reading the same book...

I bought this on the strength of it's reception of the Hugo award and was initially very excited to read it. However, I ended up very dissapointed. As many others have noted: the characters are weak; the writing is poor; and the plot is about the most plodding I have read in a long time. The last point is perhaps the worst ... it was just not an entertaining read. This book is not a page turner.I note many other reviewers at the other end of the spectrum: a 'seminal' novel, a dark sense of humor, amazing allegory, 'you have to think to read it', etc. I just can't relate to these...I find it difficult to believe they were reading the same novel. I particuarly don't understand the 'humor' aspect of many comments...I found nothing funny at all in here, not in the least. If you want funny (and an excellent book overall), I would recommend Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson.