Cryptonomicon is amazing, I've read it multiple times. Snow Crash is of course incredible. The Baroque Cycle was... a slog. I bought and read them all, but couldn't tell you much about what happened. After that series, he never quite returned to the form he had in Anathem or REAMDE, both of which are incredible (for wildly different reas…
Cryptonomicon is amazing, I've read it multiple times. Snow Crash is of course incredible. The Baroque Cycle was... a slog. I bought and read them all, but couldn't tell you much about what happened. After that series, he never quite returned to the form he had in Anathem or REAMDE, both of which are incredible (for wildly different reasons). The Mongoliad was excellent, too, tho it was a collab effort. I love the premise and the first half of Seveneves, but the 2nd half falls down a bit (tho still worth a read). Haven't made it thru Termination Shock yet, but I'm gonna have to give it another go -- esp since he has a new book out now!
Funny that we disagree on Cryptonomicon, I am heavily involved in implementing cryptographic algorithms, I have two DRM patents from Microsoft (given their state, that should not be read as a boast). Yet the only thing I remember from the book is using the CapLock and NumLock lights to send Morse code.
Edit: I will NEVER put a penny into cryptocurrencies.
Yea, cryptocurrency is a ponzi scheme, by definition, so I'm not sinking money into that scam. My favourite bits of Cryptonomicon were the WWII Sgt Shaftoe chapters (tho the "modern day" trip into the jungle is epic and SO well written, esp the letter about driving behind the pig truck). Given, I probably don't have the technical knowledge of cryptography that you do, but I thought it was a good primer for it, esp the bits about Adam Turing and Bletchley Park.
I thought Seveneves was horrid. First of all, we never learned why the moon suddenly began to crumble, but it reminded me of a Paddy Chayevsky book e.g. Altered States or Network: good premise, great buildup, and then 2/3 of the way through it just falls apart and made me feel I'd wasted time I could've better spent reading something more educational. I would not consider reading it again. The title feels like an afterthought, as if he came up with the seven Eves wondering "how can I wrap this up."
I'll give this new one a shot. But if it turns out as disappointing as everything since DA, I won't slog through the series.
Let’s just agree that the fact that an author can produce an oeuvre that is so varied that it has people agreeing he’s great, but disagreeing vehemently on which of his books are treasure or trash, is pretty impressive. For my part, DA suffers the most from NS’ “awesome premise, rushed ending” tendency. Seveneves (who doesn’t love a palindrome?!?) and Anathem are favorites. Fall… and Termination Shock are probably the biggest misses, though even the latter has some interesting ideas.
This veers perilously close to a "subjective" argument, which I want even less than an argument in general.
The first half dozen or so books by Greg Egan are among my favorite science fiction ever, up there with Pohl and Cherryh. Then his interesting dalliance with speculative physics (Schild's Ladder) advanced to unreadable tedium, worsened by his new fascination with Iranian culture, and I put Zendegi and Clockwork Rocket into a trash bin.
Yet once in a while he does a short story every bit as good as Distress or Permutation City.
Just as all my favorite progressive bands went pop or just lost it, I can't expect a writer to maintain the same quality all his life.
I love Seveneves, but it definitely feels like a 700-or-so-page prologue to a more interesting series about the evolution of humanity. I really hope he gets a chance to revisit that world in a sequel. Might take a successful TV adaptation to spark interest.
If you haven't finished (or even started) them, I can't recommend REAMDE and Anathem highly enough. Neither feels like 800 pages, since he is (was) so good at keeping things moving (The Baroque Cycle notwithstanding lol).
Anathem, I found unreadable. Intellectual cock-polishing; it felt like Stephenson has had too many people tell him how smart he is.
I just read about README as I bought the new book (yay Kindle) and, sorry, but I have no interest in games, none have ever held my interest.
I have a long time friend who has been in the game industry most of his life who tells me that the big game companies hire psychologists specializing in addiction to adjust the reward intervals in their products to entice kids to keep playing, I foresee VR games where kids wet themselves and forget to eat.
In general, I'm not drawn to entertainment, I have not watched TV in 40 years and when I do read fiction I want it to stimulate my mind, not just burn up time, something that is running out for me.
If I was reading README I would be struggling with my disdain for gams the entire time.
The game is just a side interaction, which I won't spoil, but it's not necessary to know much about games, other than that they have in-game currency. It's kind of a pre-crypto currency, now that I think about it. I play computer games, but none of the "gatcha" style, where it's built to keep you coming back for more so they can sell you in-game cosmetics for real-world money.
None of which interest me in the slightest. I have had a life goal for years, to read and understand Gravitation by Misner Thorne and Wheeler (http://bit.ly/3BSQk6h) the authoritative tome on general relativity, and far over my head; I thought I had many years left but suddenly I don't; a sequel to a book I found so disappointing is not in the stars, sorry.
REAMDE isn't a sequel to anything. Most of his stuff is standalone, other than the Baroque Cycle (and Cryptonomicon which is ostensibly a sorta kinda first book in that series). Mongoliad has 3 volumes (last I looked), but it's a collaboration.
Sonny Bunch was hoping for a sequel to Seveneves, that's what I was responding to. My disappointment with that book's ending was something I could feel in my viscera. I gave the guy another chance, he let me down hard. I managed to finish Cryptonomicon but I will never read it again; I couldn't stand Anathem. Just ... awful. Goo-goo about high finance has no appeal to me. I lived through the dotcoms and the condescending financial types I met revolted me. "What's the 'Periodic Table'?"
But hope springs eternal. It's hard to believe that someone who did work as fine as Snow and Diamond will never have another great book in him, so I bought the new one. But if it's another look-at-me letdown, it's the end.
Cryptonomicon is amazing, I've read it multiple times. Snow Crash is of course incredible. The Baroque Cycle was... a slog. I bought and read them all, but couldn't tell you much about what happened. After that series, he never quite returned to the form he had in Anathem or REAMDE, both of which are incredible (for wildly different reasons). The Mongoliad was excellent, too, tho it was a collab effort. I love the premise and the first half of Seveneves, but the 2nd half falls down a bit (tho still worth a read). Haven't made it thru Termination Shock yet, but I'm gonna have to give it another go -- esp since he has a new book out now!
Funny that we disagree on Cryptonomicon, I am heavily involved in implementing cryptographic algorithms, I have two DRM patents from Microsoft (given their state, that should not be read as a boast). Yet the only thing I remember from the book is using the CapLock and NumLock lights to send Morse code.
Edit: I will NEVER put a penny into cryptocurrencies.
Yea, cryptocurrency is a ponzi scheme, by definition, so I'm not sinking money into that scam. My favourite bits of Cryptonomicon were the WWII Sgt Shaftoe chapters (tho the "modern day" trip into the jungle is epic and SO well written, esp the letter about driving behind the pig truck). Given, I probably don't have the technical knowledge of cryptography that you do, but I thought it was a good primer for it, esp the bits about Adam Turing and Bletchley Park.
I thought Seveneves was horrid. First of all, we never learned why the moon suddenly began to crumble, but it reminded me of a Paddy Chayevsky book e.g. Altered States or Network: good premise, great buildup, and then 2/3 of the way through it just falls apart and made me feel I'd wasted time I could've better spent reading something more educational. I would not consider reading it again. The title feels like an afterthought, as if he came up with the seven Eves wondering "how can I wrap this up."
I'll give this new one a shot. But if it turns out as disappointing as everything since DA, I won't slog through the series.
Let’s just agree that the fact that an author can produce an oeuvre that is so varied that it has people agreeing he’s great, but disagreeing vehemently on which of his books are treasure or trash, is pretty impressive. For my part, DA suffers the most from NS’ “awesome premise, rushed ending” tendency. Seveneves (who doesn’t love a palindrome?!?) and Anathem are favorites. Fall… and Termination Shock are probably the biggest misses, though even the latter has some interesting ideas.
This veers perilously close to a "subjective" argument, which I want even less than an argument in general.
The first half dozen or so books by Greg Egan are among my favorite science fiction ever, up there with Pohl and Cherryh. Then his interesting dalliance with speculative physics (Schild's Ladder) advanced to unreadable tedium, worsened by his new fascination with Iranian culture, and I put Zendegi and Clockwork Rocket into a trash bin.
Yet once in a while he does a short story every bit as good as Distress or Permutation City.
Just as all my favorite progressive bands went pop or just lost it, I can't expect a writer to maintain the same quality all his life.
I love Seveneves, but it definitely feels like a 700-or-so-page prologue to a more interesting series about the evolution of humanity. I really hope he gets a chance to revisit that world in a sequel. Might take a successful TV adaptation to spark interest.
If you haven't finished (or even started) them, I can't recommend REAMDE and Anathem highly enough. Neither feels like 800 pages, since he is (was) so good at keeping things moving (The Baroque Cycle notwithstanding lol).
Anathem, I found unreadable. Intellectual cock-polishing; it felt like Stephenson has had too many people tell him how smart he is.
I just read about README as I bought the new book (yay Kindle) and, sorry, but I have no interest in games, none have ever held my interest.
I have a long time friend who has been in the game industry most of his life who tells me that the big game companies hire psychologists specializing in addiction to adjust the reward intervals in their products to entice kids to keep playing, I foresee VR games where kids wet themselves and forget to eat.
In general, I'm not drawn to entertainment, I have not watched TV in 40 years and when I do read fiction I want it to stimulate my mind, not just burn up time, something that is running out for me.
If I was reading README I would be struggling with my disdain for gams the entire time.
The game is just a side interaction, which I won't spoil, but it's not necessary to know much about games, other than that they have in-game currency. It's kind of a pre-crypto currency, now that I think about it. I play computer games, but none of the "gatcha" style, where it's built to keep you coming back for more so they can sell you in-game cosmetics for real-world money.
I love REAMDE and it's only nominally about "video games"; really, it's about money and finances and the internationalization of commerce.
None of which interest me in the slightest. I have had a life goal for years, to read and understand Gravitation by Misner Thorne and Wheeler (http://bit.ly/3BSQk6h) the authoritative tome on general relativity, and far over my head; I thought I had many years left but suddenly I don't; a sequel to a book I found so disappointing is not in the stars, sorry.
REAMDE isn't a sequel to anything. Most of his stuff is standalone, other than the Baroque Cycle (and Cryptonomicon which is ostensibly a sorta kinda first book in that series). Mongoliad has 3 volumes (last I looked), but it's a collaboration.
Sonny Bunch was hoping for a sequel to Seveneves, that's what I was responding to. My disappointment with that book's ending was something I could feel in my viscera. I gave the guy another chance, he let me down hard. I managed to finish Cryptonomicon but I will never read it again; I couldn't stand Anathem. Just ... awful. Goo-goo about high finance has no appeal to me. I lived through the dotcoms and the condescending financial types I met revolted me. "What's the 'Periodic Table'?"
But hope springs eternal. It's hard to believe that someone who did work as fine as Snow and Diamond will never have another great book in him, so I bought the new one. But if it's another look-at-me letdown, it's the end.