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Neal Stephenson

Cryptonomicon is the best book I've ever read. Seriously. Here's my review.

I'm planning on buying the Baroque Cycle in a nice hardback set.

Cheers
 
I've been meaning to post this, but I always forget. Here's a link to a Neal Stephenson interview in Slashdot. It's pretty recent too, less than a month old. :p

Enjoy!

ds
 
ds, excellent link!

I loved the description of his 'duels' with William Gibson.
 
yeah, it was pretty good, wasn't it? :) I liked the way he described the two classes of writers.

I was thinking what a good life it must be to write the way he does for a living, but when I think of the sort of research he must have done for the Baroque Cycle, it's bloody hard work also.

ds
 
Here's another interview, at Salon.com. You'll have to endure a short ad to get to the good stuff, but it's worth it.

Cheers
 
:eek: <--- me, 3/4 of the way thru Snow Crash. It's great fun, but have to take a break to digest.
Religion as computer virus?!
 
Just finished The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson after a very long interruption. Picked it up again while I was on holiday, and just had to go all the way.

It was, well, weird. I really loved the idea of the primer - what it is and what it does. I liked the idea that conceived the primer. And the tech stuff were pretty cool too. But towards the end all the politics and fighting started to get confusing. It seemed to me as he rushed towards the ending.


ds
 
lol I never actually made it to the end!

I got to the point where he had to leave the city and that's as far as I got :) I put it down meaning to go back to it but just never did. :)
 
Revivin', revivin', gotta keep revivin'!

I recently found The Diamond Age for a reasonable preice, so I picked it up. I read Snow Crach quite some time ago, and it truly was a rollercoaster of a book. Nothing extraordinarily good, but very inventive. The loose ends could have been handled better, I'll give you that, but still. A very entertaining book. I'm hoping TDA will be just as much fun.

I also have the Baroque Cycle in a nice hardback set, which I'm dying to read, but I'm always a bit weary about picking up books that big (around 900 pages each), so it may be a while yet.

Has anyone read the entire Baroque Cycle already? I mean, it's gotta be good if it's got its own Wikipedia entry, right?

Cheers
 
Martin said:
Has anyone read the entire Baroque Cycle already? I mean, it's gotta be good if it's got its own Wikipedia entry, right?

Cheers
Click to expand...

The Da Vinci Code has its own entry, too. Does that make it a good book?
Half of it criticism, though. I'm sure Stewart would like that. ;) But we don't want to get started on that one again, huh?

Anyway, I'm actually interested in Neal Stephenson.
The problem with Cryptonomicon is that it's just so damn long and right now I prefer shorter reads. I have seen Quicksilver in a book shop recently and it looks interesting, but not that much shorter. So, has he written anything, that won't take that much time to read?
 
Rigana said:
Anyway, I'm actually interested in Neal Stephenson.
The problem with Cryptonomicon is that it's just so damn long and right now I prefer shorter reads. I have seen Quicksilver in a book shop recently and it looks interesting, but not that much shorter. So, has he written anything, that won't take that much time to read?
Click to expand...
The aforementioned Snow Crash is much shorter and worth trying if you want to get a feel for Stephenson.

ds - love your new purple suit & hat. :)
 
Thanks a lot. :)
I just ordered "Snow Crash" from my library, since they don't own a copy of "The Diamond Age".
 
A word of warning - as far as I know, Snow Crash and The Diamond Age are entirely different from Cryptonomicon, and it's historical prequels The Baroque Cycle.
 
I thought Cryptonomicon was interesting and a book I could have finished if I hadn't put it down in favor of another book. The topic was to my liking. Quicksilver just turned me off completely and I put it down forever -- slow, boring and pretentious IMO. And the most interesting by far was Snow Crash which I thoroughly enjoyed. An imaginative story that moved right along, I thought. So, no more Neal Stephenson for me, unless it is to finish Cryptonomicon.

OMO,
Grist for the mill, :)
Peder
 
Peder said:
Quicksilver just turned me off completely and I put it down forever -- slow, boring and pretentious IMO
Click to expand...
This in spite of the fact that it is in many ways linked to Cryptonomicon?
 
Martin said:
This in spite of the fact that it is in many ways linked to Cryptonomicon?
Click to expand...
Martin,
It didn't seem like it to me, based on reading the first 150 pages or so of each. So, yes.
Peder
 
Well, The Baroque Cycle is a prequel to Cryptonomicon, featuring the forefathers of the main characters from Cryptonomicon. I haven't read them myself, yet, so I can't comment on how much overlap (for lack of a better word) there actually is, but there most certainly is a link.

That said, different strokes, right?
 
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