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Neal Stephenson fans?
Posted on 7/9/17 at 7:37 am
Posted on 7/9/17 at 7:37 am
I'm blown away by this guy. He's like a combination of William Gibson, Thomas Pynchon, David Foster Wallace, and Tom Clancy.
I think a lot of people struggle with him, because they've read Snowcrash, which is kind of zany, fast-paced cyberpunk then get into his "heavier" stuff and struggle. I'm really considering rereading the Baroque Cycle again, along with Cryptonomicon, because of how prescient they were and insights they might give about the current cryptocurrency movement and understanding the theoretical underpinnings.
Pretty sure, though, that Seveneves is my favorite book by him, and I'm stoked to see it made into a movie, though I'll be curious to see if they can pull it off.
I think a lot of people struggle with him, because they've read Snowcrash, which is kind of zany, fast-paced cyberpunk then get into his "heavier" stuff and struggle. I'm really considering rereading the Baroque Cycle again, along with Cryptonomicon, because of how prescient they were and insights they might give about the current cryptocurrency movement and understanding the theoretical underpinnings.
Pretty sure, though, that Seveneves is my favorite book by him, and I'm stoked to see it made into a movie, though I'll be curious to see if they can pull it off.
Posted on 7/9/17 at 8:12 am to hogfly
I've only read the Mongoliad, which isn't exactly written by him, but I enjoyed it. I do think I'd like his other stuff.
Posted on 7/9/17 at 9:02 am to hogfly
quote:
Pretty sure, though, that Seveneves is my favorite book by him,
I heard him talk about Seveneves on a podcast and it sounded fascinating but a few posters here have commented that it wasn't very good.
Posted on 7/9/17 at 11:04 am to Antonio Moss
I'd be curious what the complaints involved. Too tedious in the descriptions of zero gravity physics?
This post was edited on 7/9/17 at 11:05 am
Posted on 7/9/17 at 3:09 pm to hogfly
quote:
Too tedious in the descriptions of zero gravity physics
That was exactly the complaint
Posted on 7/9/17 at 3:14 pm to Antonio Moss
quote:
That was exactly the complaint
That's pretty typical of Stephenson's work. I find a lot of it really fascinating and think he's amazing at maintaining a good style while relating really crazy scientific concepts and detail. That's why I put Tom Clancy as point of comparison though because he would similar 20 page descriptions of the workings of a nuclear Sub (which I usually skipped over).
Posted on 7/9/17 at 3:20 pm to hogfly
I'm going to try this book out
Posted on 7/9/17 at 11:16 pm to hogfly
I have read Seveneaves and really liked it. What should I read next of his stuff?
Posted on 7/10/17 at 7:12 am to vistajay
quote:
I have read Seveneaves and really liked it. What should I read next of his stuff?
Snow Crash for sure as the next recommendation.
Then I'd probably say Diamond Age then Cryptonomicon (might reverse those if you're interested in cryptocurrency and cryptology the Enigma code and things of that nature, which is what Crytonomicon deals with ). I absolutely LOVE the Baroque Cycle, but it's a departure because it's historical science fiction, delving back into the origins of modern scientific inquiry, mathematics, and economics with entertaining fictional narratives based around characters like Isaac Newton and Franz Liebniz. So, it's not really futurist science fiction, more historical science fiction. The Cycle is also HUGE with 3 volumes containing I think 8 books. Each of the three volumes are like 1600 pages, and it's not "light" reading like Robert Jordan or other fantasy and scifi can be.. a lot of it is dense.
This post was edited on 7/10/17 at 7:19 am
Posted on 7/12/17 at 10:14 am to hogfly
He's great for the first 95% of his books. Endings are usually terrible. I've read Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, and Seveneves. I started the Baroque cycle and made it to book 4 before I lost interest.
Posted on 7/12/17 at 4:39 pm to hogfly
quote:
Pretty sure, though, that Seveneves is my favorite book by him,
You didn't think the far future ending was a bit silly? I don't want to venture into spoiler territory, but I didn't buy any of it. The rest of the book was great.
Ok. Can't help it...
SPOILER WARNING:
1. All seven "races" in space stay separate for thousands of years, even though they necessarily started out as a small group that slowly grew over probably hundreds of years in a small space? Ridiculous.
2. Not only do the underground people survive, but the submarine people survive too? Ridiculous, AND invalidates all the struggles of the people in space. Turns out they weren't necessary to save humanity after all.
3. Oh by the way, the sub people, the space people, and the underground people were all related to each other before the disaster. Ridiculous coincidence.
4. Submarine people evolved gills? Ridiculous.
Posted on 7/12/17 at 8:49 pm to hogfly
quote:
Diamond Age
I really really love this book. By far my favorite by him. Just an awesome read. Anathem is really cool, too.
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