4chan archive /lit/ (index)
2013-08-06 03:35 4005333 Anonymous (cryptonomicon-neal-stephenson-hardcover-cover-art.jpg 200x297 10kB)
What does /lit/ think of Neal Stephenson? Just finished Quicksilver for the first time and Cryptonomicon for the 5th or 6th. I know those aren't his most famous works but I'm surprised I haven't heard more discussion about them.

17 min later 4005362 Anonymous
I've only ever read his very outdated essay about operating systems

31 min later 4005386 Anonymous
I read half of Snow Crash but found it boring.

34 min later 4005396 Anonymous
I read of all Snow Crash and found it interesting.

37 min later 4005403 Anonymous
I started Cryptonomicon and it gave me cancer, so i quit reading. I still have cancer though.

58 min later 4005453 Anonymous
Cryptonomicon was my first Stephenson book, and apparently I liked it enough that I went on to read Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, and Reamde. I'm a /k/ sort of guy and he does a good job writing military characters because he does good research. I like his work even if it can be a little long-winded. Cryptonomicon had a lot of "jokes" that were lost on me (the whole fucking chapter about Captain Crunch) but the characters were memorable. Snow Crash and Reamde were interesting, I would recommend those if you liked the technological side of Crypto. I would advise other readers to pass on The Diamond Age, the book spends too much time with this fairytale plot that goes fucking nowhere and it makes the end of the book a letdown.

58 min later 4005455 Anonymous
>>4005403 hurry up and die then >>4005333 >Cryptonomicon for the 5th or 6th. I know those aren't his most famous works but I'm surprised I haven't heard more discussion about them. cryptonomicon is i think his most popular. it's pretty good cyberthriller/historical fiction, pretty much top of the heap. >>4005396 >>4005386 snowcrash is horrible. up there with neuromancer in terms of uselessness

1 hours later 4005471 Anonymous
I guess I like his ideeas and dialogue and worldbuilding but I never give a shit about what happens. Snow Crash I just stopped reading in the middle of the final action scene. Other one I read from his is the Aethem or whatever its called, the one with monasteries and aliens atacking eartg

1 hours later 4005479 Anonymous
>>4005471 I can just feel the apathy in that post, it is seething with ambivalence

1 hours later 4005508 Anonymous
>>4005333 I got about two chapters into the Diamond Age. World seemed interesting, but unless a book grabs me in the first few chapters, I put it down. I don't like reading things that aren't enjoyable or have some value to them. >>4005471 >>4005479 This is Stephenson's problem. Apathy. I simply didn't care.

1 hours later 4005520 Anonymous
>>4005508 I'm not sure why you would place your own feelings of apathy on Stephenson, but you definitely have a point. Also, I wasn't taking a jab at you, I just found the typos in your post and the point you were making humorously entwined. His books seem to take a long, long time to get where they're going; cracking one open is like spreading out a huge chart on a table and trying to find Saskatchewan. Diamond Age was kind of a slog in some places honestly, and like I said I didn't think it was worth it. You probably made the right choice there. What I think makes up for the sprawling and intimidating nature of the work (in my mind) is attention to detail that results in (as noted above) good worldbuilding. But I think he needs to less exposition-shoveling up front so the narrative doesn't read so much like a history textbook.

1 hours later 4005538 Anonymous
I'm about 2/3 of the way through Snow Crash. He's got some pretty interesting ideas but his narrative isn't all that cohesive; instead of revealing small details throughout the entire book, the protagonist sat with a robot in a library and literally pushed the plot along manually. So, really creative world (and YT is a good character) but the narrative arc itself is just not very well-written.

2 hours later 4005550 Anonymous
>>4005538 >Vagina Dentata >likeable character I kid, I kid.

2 hours later 4005555 Anonymous (arise_chicken.png 275x229 15kB)
>>4005550 Just kid, just kid, dirty boy.

2 hours later 4005556 Anonymous
>>4005455 >implying a story has to be intellectually stimulating to be worth reading do you even entertainment

2 hours later 4005563 Anonymous
>>4005538 >tfw there will probably never be a cyberpunk book that creates an interesting and complex world while retaining characters with depth and ability in order to explore the nature of the human spirit in relation to technology and society

2 hours later 4005579 Anonymous
>>4005563 not with that attitude. Maybe you could be the one to write it!

2 hours later 4005626 Anonymous
>>4005579 i've actually thought about trying but i'm not nearly good enough at character development to properly tell such a tale

3 hours later 4005721 Anonymous
Cryptonomicon is fucking killer, Quicksilver is aight, Snow Crash is pretty good, and Reamde is a fucking solid globetrotting thriller that makes these mercenary paperback-thriller-a-year writers look like dogshit.

11 hours later 4007078 Anonymous
in defence of the diamond age it is my favorite stephenson book

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