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).
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.
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.