Based off of the short excerpt provided, The Hermes Protocol seems like a very imaginative and fast-paced cyberpunk story. However, the glimpse of the book provided didn't really make me want to keep reading. This kind of genre isn't my usual fare, so that could be part of it. The synopsis sounds intriguing though. I wish the excerpt had included more of the basic plot outlined in that synopsis, so that we could see Bastion and get a better idea of what the rest of the story would be like.