Hard going? I'd say fairly easy going, but a lot of it. But after all there's no hurry about things like that. One chapter a night and it's a couple of months, takes you through to Christmas.

After all, it is what they used to call in the days it's set in "a three-decker" - it's just that the three volumes are bound together as one book.

Amusing reading the reviews tucked away somewhere on that link I gave including the Guardian reviewer's rather silly comment: "As for sexual attraction, forget it: Clarke's protagonists are chaste to the bone, and their flesh never intrudes. There are many less crucial but annoying flaws..."