Yeah, for me Stephenson is really about him transmitting his research about things he thinks are cool, through understandable human situations. I find this acceptable and often fun, because I'm the kind of person who reads scifi for the universes (I've read all the Dune books multiple times (not the prequels though, sheesh)). I got through the first two books of the Baroque Cycle, which I found more or less interesting, and then never read the third for some reason (maybe I don't actually have it! That is an idea), but I still retain a lot of useful concepts about early America &c.

If you want more fun and more New England, there is always Zodiac, which I've read a bunch of times (not just because I used to live in some of the locations). It is about ecology and pollution.