Love Neal's work. He's created so many great worlds but I think Snow Crash and Anathem are my favourites.
I have this vague feeling that I bumped into him in a provincial high street in England once. I've no way of actually verifying it was him but if we ever meet again next time I'll be prepared to give him better directions. :P
dylanz 22 minutes ago [-]
I haven't read Anathem yet (adding that to my reading list) but Cryptonomicon is high on my list! Snow Crash was incredible and it's one of the few books where I still remember most of the characters in it.
hungryhobbit 45 seconds ago [-]
Honestly, IMHO it's complete and utter crap compared to the AMAZING, INCREDIBLE work Stephenson did with everything that came before.
Snow Crash? A milestone in modern sci-fi. Diamond Age? A truly incredible work of art! Even lesser stuff like The Big U or In the Beginning Was the Command Line were really, really good.
Then came Cryptonomicon, and it was good too ... but he was already deteriorating into loving the sound of his own voice by then, so you had to wade through a bit to get to the good stuff.
And then there was Anathem ... where he made up half a language and required you to learn it to read the book (and it was like ten zillion pages long). Good writing is NOT just throwing whatever stupid ideas you have on the page, it's about cutting it down to the good stuff, and Stephenson just stopped doing that with Anathem.
To be fair, lots of people were willing to wade through all that fake language BS and Stephenson writing 100 words when 10 would do ... but as a complete and utter Stephenson fanatic, even I abandonded him at Anathem.
sanex 18 minutes ago [-]
Anthem is my favorite as well. Picked up a first edition a while ago, was hoping his book tour would have taken him near me so I could get it signed but looks like he stuck to the coasts and Texas.
nickcw 7 minutes ago [-]
Thirded for Anathem. It isn't for everyone, you've got to have a high tolerance for made up words and enjoy puzzling things out but if that is you (likely if you read HN) then it is great. Probably my favourite sci-fi book ever by number of re-reads!
I have this vague feeling that I bumped into him in a provincial high street in England once. I've no way of actually verifying it was him but if we ever meet again next time I'll be prepared to give him better directions. :P
Snow Crash? A milestone in modern sci-fi. Diamond Age? A truly incredible work of art! Even lesser stuff like The Big U or In the Beginning Was the Command Line were really, really good.
Then came Cryptonomicon, and it was good too ... but he was already deteriorating into loving the sound of his own voice by then, so you had to wade through a bit to get to the good stuff.
And then there was Anathem ... where he made up half a language and required you to learn it to read the book (and it was like ten zillion pages long). Good writing is NOT just throwing whatever stupid ideas you have on the page, it's about cutting it down to the good stuff, and Stephenson just stopped doing that with Anathem.
To be fair, lots of people were willing to wade through all that fake language BS and Stephenson writing 100 words when 10 would do ... but as a complete and utter Stephenson fanatic, even I abandonded him at Anathem.