Chiaroscuro set a very high bar, and this book came close but didn't quite meet it. As others have said, Dune's sudden collapse didn't seem to fit his character. Even taking into consideration various past events and emotions, it just didn't make sense that someone as well-balanced as he seemed to be would fall apart so quickly and completely.I was also disconcerted on a few geographic points. I've lived in San Francisco, in Berkeley, in Oakland, San Jose, Concord, Alameda...and there were a couple of times I found myself saying "Huh?" as some geographic thing or another didn't fit the reality I know. It was distracting. One example: Micah returns from Europe at 3am and plans to take BART. Really? BART stops running at midnight every day, except on rare occasions like New Years Eve and Halloween.Also, Micah's trip from Europe to SFO took 30 hours...WTF, did he go by way of Japan? I've flown between San Francisco and Europe many times and various locations, and it's never taken more than 16 hours or so - even with multi-hour layovers. And, flying from SFO, I arrived in Bangkok 'only' 24 hours later. So what happened that it took him so long to get home? And how could he have any idea whether anyone was there to pick him up or not until he got to Baggage Claim? Presumably he's smart enough to know that anyone without a ticket couldn't meet him any sooner than that, and so wouldn't even start looking until he got there; instead, he'd given up looking by the time he got there. Huh?I realize I'm focusing on the negative, and it really was a great book. But I figure it might help others to be forewarned about these things before you read it, then you might not find them so distracting. It is a book well worth reading, and I'm looking forward to the next one.