A favorite of mine as well; I think theres a Shaftoe in a lot of us. For the uninitiated, it took me about 48 hours of reading to get through. The depth of Stephenson's side-stories and historic background are as captivating as they are numerous, to me it is emblematic of his writing style.

It's a good book indeed.

Here is another quote about metis, which I reread every time I need inspiration: https://markpasc.org/blog/gems/athena.html