This is a good start. As many point out, the older technology is fun to come across periodically but I didn't find it distracting at all.What I enjoyed most was the gradual reveal of the puzzle behind everything in this book. The quest for blue diamonds is more than a bit farfetched but if you enjoy technical mysteries, it is done better here than in some of Lincon/Preston books such as 'Relic' & 'Thunderhead', two books that are very Crichton-esque in their reading. 'Rising Sun' has a better mystery at its core than this book but it lacks the overall fun that can be found here.