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Anybody read Neal Stephenson?
- Thread starter SuperDuck
- Start date
I read Snow Crash years ago. Loved it.
Then I read Diamond Age. Loved it.
Just recently I read...geez, I can't even remember what it was called, it was either Quicksilver or part of the Baroque Series or the Cryptomicron (sp) ...the one with Sir Isaac Newton and the burning of London and the pirates chasing the sailing ships etc...
I so did not love that book. It was painful.
Then I read Diamond Age. Loved it.
Just recently I read...geez, I can't even remember what it was called, it was either Quicksilver or part of the Baroque Series or the Cryptomicron (sp) ...the one with Sir Isaac Newton and the burning of London and the pirates chasing the sailing ships etc...
I so did not love that book. It was painful.
john turner
You don't want to do that. Trust me.
snow crash is not dense at all, imo. was very fast read. factoid : iirc it was the first literary use of "avatar" as a digital representation of a human being.
+1
Speaking of Gravity's Rainbow, I still haven't made it through Pynchon's Mason & Dixon.
For those who like Pynchon, check out David Foster Wallace. Start with "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" (HILARIOUS collection of essays) and his masterpiece Infinite Jest.
I've read most of his novels, and I liked the Baroque cycle best. I enjoyed Cryptonomicon the first time around, but couldn't get into it the second time, after reading the Baroque cycle. I'd say it's because his writing just got that much better in the interim, but I did enjoy The Big U quite a bit. Anyway, I'm pretty jazzed about Anathem (especially after reading that partial glossary) and will be picking it up soon.
Snow Crash is probably my second favorite book of all time. I picked up a really nice pair of signed limited edition copies a while back... one to keep, and one as an investment. They sold all 500 limited editions pre-order. It's a beauty.
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Just finished Anathem (I got distracted by some other books a few months ago). Great book! It's been a while since I've been so emotionally affected by the events in a book, but page 818(ish, it was somewhere around there) hit me really hard for some reason. It took me a while to figure out what was going on in the events that immediately followed. Once I figured out what Fraa Jad and other Millenerians had figured out, I was blown away by the concept and execution of the concept.
I didn't even mind that it took several hundred pages to actually get into the plot, either.
btw - I did end up getting my book signed. Mr. Stephenson, while an excellent author, is a very reserved and slightly awkward person in real life.
I didn't even mind that it took several hundred pages to actually get into the plot, either.
btw - I did end up getting my book signed. Mr. Stephenson, while an excellent author, is a very reserved and slightly awkward person in real life.
I loved the Baroque Cycle and Cryptonomicon.
Liked Snow Crash and Zodiac-- actually had a lot of fun with Zodiac because I work in the environmental field and could spot which companies he was referring to behind the "names changed to protect the guilty" thing. E.g. "the Swiss b*st*rds" are probably DuPont and Fotex is Kodak.
Didn't like Diamond Age or Anathem.
Haven't read Interface, Cobweb, or Big U.
One of the things that always drives me mad about him is the way he ends books.... lots of chaos and then an abrupt down-curtain with lots of things unresolved or not explained.
I tried to like Anathem....but the last third or so of it was just too overboard for me.
Incidentally, did anyone else think that the setting of Anathem reminded them of the Motie's world from The Mote In God's Eye, as far as the unending boom/bust cycles go?
Liked Snow Crash and Zodiac-- actually had a lot of fun with Zodiac because I work in the environmental field and could spot which companies he was referring to behind the "names changed to protect the guilty" thing. E.g. "the Swiss b*st*rds" are probably DuPont and Fotex is Kodak.
Didn't like Diamond Age or Anathem.
Haven't read Interface, Cobweb, or Big U.
One of the things that always drives me mad about him is the way he ends books.... lots of chaos and then an abrupt down-curtain with lots of things unresolved or not explained.
I tried to like Anathem....but the last third or so of it was just too overboard for me.
Incidentally, did anyone else think that the setting of Anathem reminded them of the Motie's world from The Mote In God's Eye, as far as the unending boom/bust cycles go?
Thinking about picking a Neal Stephenson book this holiday. I've read Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon. Loved em. What you all recommend?
Anathem is awesome, IMO. It's his return to sci-fi after doing the Baroque Cycle, which was historical fiction. The BC is a significant time investment, however. It consists of three very long, very dense books.
^Sounds good. I need a nice mental escape from all the reality hitting us right now. I'll check out Anathem
That's just the way he writes books, I guess. The ending to Cryptonomicon kind of bugged me, but that was the first book of his I've read so perhaps I've just come to accept it. Getting there is half the fun, though.
Just a bit of a caveat.... Anathem is sci-fi, yes, but it's extremely cerebral, and involves a lot of philosophy and physics. This doesn't mean it's not good....just don't expect a lot of action.
Just as an update.... I scored a copy of Big U, which is back in print. I thought it was hilarious, and was surprised at how many of the themes he goes over in this book show up in his later ones.
