Neal is one of two living authors whose all books I buy. Happy to have found him during Covid, thanks to HN comments. I found Greg Egan during that time, and I am grateful to HN threads and comments on books.
nickmonad 1 hours ago [-]
My first exposure to Neal was through Reamde and it's definitely the fastest I've managed to get through a novel relative to length. I really enjoy his style.
hungryhobbit 25 minutes ago [-]
I recommend his older stuff to anyone else looking to check him out: Snow Crash is an undeniable classic, Diamond Age was absolutely incredible, and even Zodiac and In the Beginning Was the Command Line are both very good (although the last one is obviously more for computer people).
His newer stuff is very ... verbose. It started with Cryptonomicon (not sci-fi and WAY longer than it should have been) and by the time he got to Anathema he was so full of himself he not only wrote a giant text ... he wrote it in a made-up sub-language he created (and expected you to learn) just to enjoy the story.
He's one of my absolute favorite authors ... or at least he was for the first half of his career.
VirusNewbie 13 minutes ago [-]
The “made up language” is directly tied to the plot and overall themes, and leads to an “aha” moment.
acheron 1 hours ago [-]
Ah, a classic. This was Slashdot’s high point.
Note: (2004)
jjs 37 minutes ago [-]
I love this site, but I miss classic Slashdot
hungryhobbit 20 minutes ago [-]
Slashdot is still there.
It's kind of tiny compared to here (<1/5th the articles maybe?) but it still has an older/Slashdot-y crowd.
fragmede 10 minutes ago [-]
Oh man, remember when getting a BMW was the high of excessive greed?
jdkee 1 hours ago [-]
Noted!
NickDouglas 41 minutes ago [-]
That was the best explanation of litfic vs. commercial/genre fiction I've ever read.
buildbot 59 minutes ago [-]
Ah, I always wondered how Vancouver Island came to be - a fight between Stephenson and Gibson makes perfect sense.
yipinwong 1 hours ago [-]
given how Neal never goes online, i wonder how long he sat on this to reply
dfxm12 44 minutes ago [-]
Perhaps the biggest loss of cryptocurrency being branded as "crypto" is losing the Matt Blaze's thoughts on cryptography (and in turn, how this informed Stephenson's thoughts on these topics).
His newer stuff is very ... verbose. It started with Cryptonomicon (not sci-fi and WAY longer than it should have been) and by the time he got to Anathema he was so full of himself he not only wrote a giant text ... he wrote it in a made-up sub-language he created (and expected you to learn) just to enjoy the story.
He's one of my absolute favorite authors ... or at least he was for the first half of his career.
Note: (2004)
It's kind of tiny compared to here (<1/5th the articles maybe?) but it still has an older/Slashdot-y crowd.
Anyway, in case you were curious:
Hobbs: https://web.archive.org/web/20041204055248/http://www.crypto...
Master Key: https://web.archive.org/web/20041022021127/http://www.crypto...
https://www.mattblaze.org/blog/