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Grex Books Item 75: Neal Stephenson's science fiction (and maybe Zodiak)
Entered by jazz on Fri Sep 4 11:56:04 UTC 1998:

        As robh inquired, I thought I'd enter an item:

        Neal Stephenson, one of the few post-cyberpunk science fiction writers
(given that cyberpunk science fiction now seems to have become a part of the
genre rather than a seperate literary movement), has managed to turn out two
or three of the most interesting books in the last few years, most notably
"Snow Crash" and "The Diamond Age:  Or a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer".

        I'm interested in discussing these.  Has anyone else read one or the
other of this brilliant series?

12 responses total.

#1 of 12 by mta on Fri Sep 4 14:33:36 1998:

I read Diamond Age and was very, very impressed.

#2 of 12 by orinoco on Fri Sep 4 20:58:30 1998:

I read Snow Crash a while back. I barely remember it - I don't think I
finished it, actually. Cyberpunk isn't really my thing, though.

#3 of 12 by jazz on Sat Sep 5 14:29:29 1998:

        One thing I've loved of Stephenson's writing is very thoroughly
researched background.  It's very European, but Stephenson pulls it off
exceptionally well - if you research the minor details he suggest of the
future, you'll find programs already looking to make those details reality.
Snow Crash also advanced a theory about neurolinguistics which has also been
espoused in the late ninetis about the power of words, and the nature of
communication, which now has a significant amount of evidence behind it.  But
it didn't at the time it was written.  Zodiak carried enough information about
the business of toxic-waste clean-up to allow me to talk coherently with
someone in the field without becoming hopelessly lost.  Diamond Age contained
a solid discussion of low-level computing theory, developmental training, and
logic puzzles to rival Goedel, Escher, Bach.  Stephenson's certainly a genius,
and I loan his books out frequently just to have people to talk about him
with. ;)

#4 of 12 by orinoco on Tue Sep 8 02:13:37 1998:

...and after a glowing review like that, maybe I'll give the guy another try
 :)

#5 of 12 by hc on Tue Sep 8 16:40:29 1998:

You should! He's a great author, even if I am incredibly sick of the word
"meme." He's kept his CP style of writing fairly consistant, as opposed to
William Gibson, who has gone downhill, in my opinion. Gibson has gone from
hard-edged CP to a sort of cerebral sci-fi that just doesn't keep me on my
seat anymore. If I wanted some hard-core intellectual sci-fi I'd re-read some
assimov...
But I'm digressing like mad - Stephenson is excellent, and his books are great
fun, not to mention intelligent.

#6 of 12 by jazz on Tue Sep 8 17:14:50 1998:

        Yeah, I tend to gush when it comes to Stephenson's works.  I wasn't
all that impressed with Zodiak, which wasn't as emotionally involving as his
other works, and had an ending that tended to become vague and confusing (and
I love ambiguities, but not the way it was handled in Zodiak, which I'm pretty
sure wasn't supposed to be ambiguous).

        Snow Crash and Diamond Age were both excellent, and should be read in
order, so you get some of the little in-jokes and references in Diamond Age
(one of the major characters in Snow Crash cameos in Diamond Age).

#7 of 12 by mta on Tue Sep 8 21:16:24 1998:

Hmmm, sounds like Gibson may be coming to be more to my taste than he was when
I last read him 10 years ago...

#8 of 12 by raven on Wed Sep 9 05:17:35 1998:

Hmm I don't even think I would call Gibson last book Idoru intellectual, tepid
is the term I would use.  I thought it was a glitzy romp through Japanese
pop culture with characters who didn't really stick in my memory after the
book was done.  Bruce Sterling on the other hand I think has matured as
a writers I though both the concepts about an aging society and the
characters in Holy Fire were fascinating. <end drift>

I though the "Diamond Age" was a good solid sci-fi novel but it didn't impress
me nearly as much as Snow Crash a novel I would put up there with the best
of Philip K Dick (which from me is high praise).

#9 of 12 by hc on Wed Sep 9 09:50:17 1998:

Well, perhaps intellectual wasn't the word I was looking for. I do think that
that was what he was going for though - something more thoughtful than his
previous work. I agree however, that the results were rather poor. I'm not
certain I'll even bother looking at his next book. 
Snow Crash was a better novel than Diamond Age, and was the first CP punk I
read that really involved some humour that wasn't bitter-edged. Diamond Agee's
characters didn't really stick on my mind, except for the Judge.. I've
forgotten his name, but I really liked that character. (Not quite the same
as Hiro, but who is?)

#10 of 12 by jazz on Wed Sep 9 17:03:31 1998:

        Judge Fang.

#11 of 12 by mcnally on Thu Sep 10 15:59:42 1998:

  I'll add my name to the growing list of Grexers who enjoyed both
  "Snow Crash" and "The Diamond Age."  I'll also agree with the
  impression I get that "Snow Crash" seems to be preferred..

  Haven't read "Zodiac" -- it didn't look up to the quality of the
  other two when I picked it up and I had a lot of stuff going on
  at the time so I didn't bother to pursue it.  Should I give it
  another chance?

#12 of 12 by hc on Fri Sep 11 17:10:59 1998:

Actually, yes, you should. It isn't quite the same, but that's not much of
a shock, since it was written much earlier on (well, earlier on, I'm not sure
how much..) But it's still a reaq

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