I found this tougher to read. Many characters have a long three-part Russian name, as well as a handle/nickname, and can be referred to several different ways. And large parts of this book are written in huge run-on sentences. There are a bunch of historical words that I needed to look up, I like learning new words.
Also its new to me to read about a world without phones or any telecommunications. Maybe that is why the focus on the language, tone and body language used is so important.
I had this classic on my bucket list, glad to finish this long book. I will next pick up a fluffier book to restore my mind to baseline.