All I can think is that a lot of the people rating this 5 stars must not read much sci-fi. The action in the story wasn't bad and I liked a few things about it, such as the Damage game. However, the wording itself was only average, and the end was not only predictable but way too drawn out. Sometimes drawing out a scene can add to the suspense but in this case it just seemed like wasted words. I was looking forward to reading a new author and I liked the title and people seemed to like Banks a lot, but now I can't see why. I wouldn't call the book outright bad but it fell well below my expectations.