What does Veeky Forums think of Neal Stephenson?

What does Veeky Forums think of Neal Stephenson?

His approach to science fiction, his progression as an author, and his future.

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wired.com/1996/12/ffglass/amp/
rudyrucker.com/pdf/3dmandelbrotsetstory.pdf
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>>>/sffg/

saged

he cant write an ending for shit

He has written a lot of historical fiction as well and some speculative fiction. I'm asking about him as an author, not just the science fiction he writes despite the mention of that.

ur a poopy head

>>historical fiction as well and some speculative fiction
>implying these are any better than sf&f

I tried The Diamond Age but I thought it was terrible, then again I've not read any Cyberpunk or books similar to that style, and I've heard The Diamond Age is supposed to be 'post-Cyberpunk' book so perhaps I didn't 'get it'.

What's something that's better for new readers?

he looks like an evil wizard

Cryptonomicon is a much bigger and denser read but it's a terribly interesting story about cryptography in the earlier days of internet infrastructure being developed. It is told through a few narrators split between WW2 and the late 90s, and it can digress into some weird tangents, but overall I think it's an excellent story.

The Diamond Age isn't really cyberpunk or post cyberpunk at all, but Snow Crash is and that book is wildly imaginative and thoroughly entertaining. It also is surprisingly unique in what it is "really" about but saying more than that would spoil it.

Diamond Age and Snow Crash are his earlier work and he was a bit less refined as an author. They are exciting and creative but not particularly insightful.

I would also recommend Anathem as a really unique approach to the perceived conflict between scientific rationalism and religion approached in a world where their apparent historical roles are reversed. It's really neat and goes places you wouldn't expect.

I'm currently reading Seveneves but so far that doesn't seem to have much grabbing me, but we'll see if it gets better as I'm only 110 pages in.

loved snow crash, loved diamond age, midway through seveneves and it's OK.

>The Diamond Age isn't really cyberpunk or post cyberpunk at all

I thought that when I was reading it. I really mustn't have been paying attention because I just found the whole societal structure of independent societies confusing - having neo-Victorian technological groups mingling with punks and chinese Boxer types. I'll probably have to read it again some time.

Back in the 90s, he wrote pretty much an entire issue-length article for Wired (back when it was relevant) about submarine fiber optic cables. It's way more interesting than it sounds and formed the nucleus of what would become Cryptonomicon and his prequel historical fiction.

Worth reading even if you hate sci fi.
wired.com/1996/12/ffglass/amp/

dissapointed in him after his kickstarter to make a sword fighting simulator failed.

I enjoy Neal Stephenson's ideas.
>Snow Crash
The comical yet intriguing idea of citizenship independent of physical location.
>Cryptonomicon
Information as currency presaged digital coinage. Stephenson's views on the uses of the internet strike me as naive but in a charming way, in retrospect; the early hacker imagining the web as an enormous clearinghouse for all knowledge.
>The Diamond Age
A possible return to Victorian ethics and standards of behavior and quality as a bulwark against ever more progressive erosion of Western culture. I liked this one quite a bit; it echoes the Great Awakenings while also addressing the phenomenon where your money can't seem to buy quality in the West because crony capitalism keeps jumping borders to the next oppressed source of labor.

Ultimately though, his writing style irks me. His tangents and random infodumps come across as a defense mechanism against an intellectual criticism that the reader hasn't heard yet gets punished for.

>tl;dr good ideas when his writing doesn't get in the way

Snow Crash and TDA were fab for sure. I tried out TBC but I just couldn't get too into it, he can't compete with Pynchon in that sort of M&D space.

The Diamond Age is amazing. By far my top out of Neuro, Androids, and Snow Crash.

He'd struck the perfect middle ground for himself there. Half way between Neuro and half way between Pynchon.

i can't wait for the next part of Seveneves.

.. what do you mean it's finished? WAT?

>Half way between Neuro and half way between Pynchon.

getting really sick of that comparison.

"cryptonomicon is set during the second world war, and it has equations... it must be like Gravity's rainbow!"

no. it fucking isn't. Pynchon has a sense of humor.

rudyrucker.com/pdf/3dmandelbrotsetstory.pdf

This also a great short in the cyberpunk vein. Really can't believe this guy never published more.

i've only read snow crash but it was pretty obviously influenced by pynchon, with all the zany humor and attempts to bridge high-low culture. whether or not you think he succeeded in melding pynchon with gibson is another story. i think he did

dude that's been the comparison since the late 80s/early 90s.

I've only read Snow Crash but I thought it was really awful. I was trying pretty hard to be open minded but it really put me off of genre fiction for a long while.

and it's wrong.

Stephenson refers to music in order to show how autistic Waterhouse is. Pynchon refers to music because he's the literary equivalent of a Warner Brothers cartoon.

the heat death of the Universe will arrive before Stephenson writes a lyric comparable to "You'll never go wrong with a pig".

I've only read snow crash but I something something something

I think everyone here agrees that Stevenson, and Cyberpunk as a genre, is less than consequential in the scope of literature as a whole.

He and it are still fun and increasingly relevant again. Pynchon is good a reference point or Stevenson cause he's like a middle-brow Pynchon. He's more relevant and self-aware of genre than most science fiction writers but not as much as most hardcore lit writers