Neal Stephenson

[golightly]

Cryptonomican is like one of those modern American TV shows such as Lost or Heroes where, if you miss out an episode, you will not have a clue what's going on. The one bit that stuck in my mind was the fantasy about the perfect cereal which involved eating Cap'n Crunch with super-chilled milk injected on to the spoon at the moment you put it in your mouth.

Now I've got some time on my hands I may well start reading the other stuff he's done, but I'm not sure I'll tackle the Baroque cycle.

 

[DotCommunist]

Actually, I am pretty sure I recommended him to you a while back on your "recommend me some good books" thread.

I recommended Stephenson to you AGES ago numpty!!

I still love Diamond Age above everything else he's done, even tho Crypto and the Baroque books are way, way better writing, characterisation etc, DA still mops it for me for the vision...it's so fucking real, and he writes about an anarcho-capitalist world with aplomb.

I've recommended that Wired article to loads of people as well - fucking great writing, and a really interesting look at a globally scare resource that everyone continually overlooks...well, they will until it goes wrong anyway...

hmm perhaps these unremembered reccs were sat at the basement of my mind, guiding what I considered a random pick from the sci fi section at waterstones.

 

[Brainaddict]

Diamond Age is wic!

I don't have the digestive capacities for his Baroque Cycle these days though.

And to add to the voices answering the question of why you haven't heard of him: it must be a hole in your brain where that bit of information should be stored. As well as the personal recommendations people mentioned, NS appears in every 'favourite sci-fi' or 'recommend me some sci-fi' urban thread, like, EVER. Perhaps the illuminati have been cutting holes in your brain to make you forget certain vital truths Consult Dr Jazzz for more info.

 

[fractionMan]

Urban gave me alistair reynolds

 

[Bernie Gunther]

Fans of Cryptomnicon should really go and read this lengthy (42k words) article in Wired (1996!) which is all about Neal's travels through SE Asia following the construction of undersea coms cables, as research for the book.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass_pr.html

Thanks for that, just finished reading it

 

[DotCommunist]

Urban gave me alistair reynolds

in all honesty, that means you owe urban your firstborn. Chasm City demands this sacrifice

 

[mentalchik]

I have never read any of this............






Neal Stephenson i mean !

 

[Bernie Gunther]

in all honesty, that means you owe urban your firstborn. Chasm City demands this sacrifice

That's the one I haven't read yet. Does it have Scorpio in it? I rather admire that pig-human hybrid guy.

 

[kyser_soze]

Nah, Chasm City goes bank to the founding of Sky's Edge...any more and it'd be spoilers ahoy, great book as it's mainly set right in the middle of the melding plague period on Yellowstone, so lots of collapsed and freaky belle epoque structures and whatnot...

 

[al]

Anyone reading Anathem? Getting through it (slowly) at the moment, it seems good but I'm still waiting for the major bit of plot to show through...

 

[kabbes]

The Baroque Cycle and Cryptonomicon are collectively one of the greatest things I've ever read. And I've read more than 10 books.

This is totally right. Although The Baroque Cycle is simultaneously the most incredible thing ever, rendering all other literature a pale imation of The True Art AND AT THE SAME TIME rather overblown and bogged down. It's just one of of those things. Not one hair on its head should be changed, though, because that would be a travesty.

 

[Santino]

The Baroque Cycle is simultaneously the most incredible thing ever, rendering all other literature a pale imation of The True Art AND AT THE SAME TIME rather overblown and bogged down.

Yes. It could not be the former in the way that it is without also being the latter. The bagginess and overblowing is precisely the point of it.

 

[iskande]

Snow Crash was great. I enjoyed the premise of Quicksilver but it was so slow and massive that it made my brain seize up and I didn't finish it.

snow crash is good and very imagnative, but suffers from a huge chunk missing approx 3/4 through

 

[kabbes]

Yes. It could not be the former in the way that it is without also being the latter. The bagginess and overblowing is precisely the point of it.

Which is the thing that both makes you love and cherish it AND also dread picking it up when you are 3/4 of the way through the second book and have half an hour to kill.

 

[iskande]

Anyone reading Anathem? Getting through it (slowly) at the moment, it seems good but I'm still waiting for the major bit of plot to show through...

baroque cycle has the same problem. gave up 1/3 into the second book. if im ever locked-up i will finish it. and find the plot.

 

[Santino]

Which is the thing that both makes you love and cherish it AND also dread picking it up when you are 3/4 of the way through the second book and have half an hour to kill.

Have you finished the last volume yet? There's so much Awesome in it.

 

[kabbes]

cryptomnicon has the same problem. gave up 1/3 into the second book. if im ever locked-up i will finish it. and find the plot.

I don't think Cryptonomnicon was ever envisaged as a multi-volume series though, was it? I've only ever read the first one and that seemed to be self-contained to me.

 

[kabbes]

Have you finished the last volume yet? There's so much Awesome in it.

Do you know, I can't actually remember? It all happened so very many years ago know *cue flashback*...

 

[kyser_soze]

I don't think Cryptonomnicon was ever envisaged as a multi-volume series though, was it? I've only ever read the first one and that seemed to be self-contained to me.

What, aside from

Spoiler: Cryptonomicon

where the book ends, with the mining just starting, the involvement of some really iffy looking criminal types, the whole continuation of the stories of how the Shaftoes, Waterhouses's and the Japanese dude all come together on Kinukuta, the nazi gold...

...there's LOADS awaiting a sequel...I actually thought he'd abandoned a Crypto duology/trilogy to write the Baroque Cycle books...

 

[Santino]

What, aside from

Spoiler: Cryptonomicon

where the book ends, with the mining just starting, the involvement of some really iffy looking criminal types, the whole continuation of the stories of how the Shaftoes, Waterhouses's and the Japanese dude all come together on Kinukuta, the nazi gold...

...there's LOADS awaiting a sequel...I actually thought he'd abandoned a Crypto duology/trilogy to write the Baroque Cycle books...

I read somewhere that the original intention was that Cryptonomicon was going to be a tri-partite, single-volume work, with three parallel stories taking place in the past (1940s), the present (1990s) and sometime in the future. But the future bit got dropped because the other two sections got out of hand.

But I don't think we are meant to conclude that the story as told is unfinished, except in the sense that life goes on, and there is no pat happy ending.

 

[iskande]

I don't think Cryptonomnicon was ever envisaged as a multi-volume series though, was it? I've only ever read the first one and that seemed to be self-contained to me.

meant baroque cycle...

 

[DotCommunist]

That's the one I haven't read yet. Does it have Scorpio in it? I rather admire that pig-human hybrid guy.

it's the best revelation space novel imo. The sort of violenct sci fi noir that makes Takeshi Kovaks look like a pale imitation of coolness.






now I have finished crypto, the ending was rushed and there's that wierd feeling of dissapointment you get when a truly good book ends. Suffice it to say I'll be enriching neals bank balance in the future

 

[cillaB]

He was in Foyles last night reading from Anathem. Really really interesting man. And with an excellent beard

 

[Santino]

Bump to say I just bought Anathem and am wishing I wasn't sitting here typing about it but was sat in the pub reading about it and thinking ''.

 

[fractionMan]

I'm reading interface at the mo.