This book is a marathon, not a sprint. I listened to the audio version, which was something like 48 hours long. It did take about eight or nine hours to really grab my attention, but once it did, I was hooked! “Unfortunately, this category of secret is itself so secret that it’s very existence is secret, and he can’t actually reveal it to anyone.” Cryptonomicon takes place in two different eras, with a collection of kind of related people occupying each. In the 1940s, we […]
“Those of us who are going to live,” Dinah said, “have to start living by our own lights.”
One the one hand, I think it’s commendable that Neal Stephenson didn’t break Seveneves into three (or more) novels, which he easily could have done, and stretched their publications out over a decade or so. On the other hand — doing so may have lead to more enjoyment (at least for me) of the series, as the first two sections kept me enthralled, while the third tended to drag. By the end, I felt like I’d spent so much time in “section three” that I’d practically […]
I cannot even begin to describe the plot of this one
Once a month, I spend $14.95 on my Audible subscription, which allows me one download for free. I used seven of these last year on the Dark Tower books, both because I wanted the whole series downloaded on audio, and also because I knew I’d be getting the most bang for my buck — the last book in the series was like 42 hours long. Now that I’ve finished those, I think I’ve found a new source for excellent and LONG audiobooks — Neal Stephenson. Reamde took […]
“The best way to know someone is to have a conversation with them.”
Neal Stephenson’s writing process must be insane. This is my third book of his and I am continually astounded by the level of obsessive technical detail present for whichever field happens to be the critical science du jour in each book. Snow Crash took great liberties with neurolinguistics, but it was still clear that Stephenson had done his homework and there was a foundation of knowledge there. Jumping straight to his most recent novel, I found Seveneves stunning, not just because of, again, the amount […]
A truly stunning sci-fi book for the ages
Wow, this book. There are a few technical elements that initially justified me wanting to leave off the fifth star, but the sheer audacity of the story and the fact that I cannot stop thinking about it a month later make Seveneves one of my favorite books of the year, and certainly the most thought-provoking. Effortlessly checking off a list of “stuff I want in a sci-fi novel,” Seveneves is technical and speculative, extrapolating from cutting-edge current science to detail seemingly inevitable future technology. Equally […]
I Hope Those are the Kinds of Lasers that Slice People in Half
I was very hesitant to pick up another Stephenson book. I read Diamond Age and was underwhelmed. And, my copy of Snow Crash came with a cover blurb comparing the story to Neuromancer, which was a book that almost made me feel physical pain trying to read through it. So I didn’t have high hopes for Snow Crash, but I wanted to cross another title off the of NPR’s 100 Best Science Fiction and Fantasy list. Little did I know that snow Crash would become […]