I had missed a number of posts in this thread at some point, and just happened to be scrolling back down through it this morning; I noticed a few folks were thrown by what I think of as Mr. MacLeod's "writing attitude". Rain said it seemed like a lot was left out of the middle, and a few other people seemed to feel that they had missed something.
When I first tried to tackle
The Cassinni Division, I was pretty lost, too. But the problem was that so much was hidden within subtle subtext and clues within the characters' actions and reactions - I had to adjust how I read him in order to catch what was motivating the characters. His
Wikipedia article states "He is known for his constant in-joking and punning on the intersection between socialist ideologies and computer programming, as well as other fields."
On the downside, it's really hard to read this guy if you aren't already fairly well-read on your socialist ideology and computer programming; but if you're up to the challenge, you can learn a lot about those things by seeing how the characters interact and react to each other. That can be annoying if you're looking for a light romp through space, but it can be extremely gratifying when you get the hang of how these characters think. I know I learned a lot about my own assumptions about politics and capitalism by digging into Mr. MacLeod's work.
I'm sure that doesn't change anyone's opinion of this story (if you got it, you probably liked it; if not, well...), but I hope those of you that didn't like it can understand what the appeal is for the rest of us. Does that help?