Need to break out the moth eaten wallet I think.

Bobs last blog post..Waste of Paper

Michael Phillipss last blog post..2009 book list

@Ninetail: I’m 600 page+ into Anathem and I agree with you that this story could have been told in a slimmer book without loosing much more than scientist-monks arguing a lot.

And, of course, it violates the Fiction Rule of Thumb

Ninetails last blog post..Hacking Skill Challenges

(For a heinleinian political tract with stephensonian asides, try Doctrow’s “Little Brother”)

Michael Phillipss last blog post..

I for one will long remember the Ultimate Capt’n Crunch experience!

@PM: You once again show the nail who’s the true master of the hammer. I never saw this as such as I had yet to discuss a post Diamond Age book with someone who read it all.

The dissertation are now a fundamental of his author signature and one needs to adapt to them or abandon what is still great literature.

It helps that I stopped feeling like a complete idiot whenever I read parts that are complete gibberish!

@Super Sooga: I think I forgot to welcome you to the Blog, so here you are: Welcome! Yeah, I’m known to be a stealth trope linker Sorry about that, you need a strong will defense score here.

Curse you

SuperSoogas last blog post..Lessons learned from Inheritance

Stephenson’s data-dumps and other epic dissertation on any topic are awesome to someone who is himself a enthusiast in the field.

We talked a bit about Cryptonomicon and we realized that we liked totally opposite parts of the novel. I liked everything about cryptography and the “net privacy” objective of the modern characters and hated pretty much everything else. Mainly because at the time I was working for a Internet Privacy start-up employing some pretty knowledgeable cryptography dudes.

(I was only part of IT but still, the office culture was all about that stuff. Actually, the company owner was the one who introduced me to Stephenson.)

Anywho, I continued on with Stephenson after Snowcrash but I hit the father of all brick walls when I reached Quicksilver. Unfortunately for me, the themes of this megalodon of a serie did not intersect with my own sphere of geekness.

Obviously the same can be said about any novel, if the subject does not appeal to you, you obviously won’t like it… What sets Stephenson apart is the fact that he can immerse (or drown) the reader in a variety of topics. Most writers can do the same but in only one subject.

So there you have it… If you haven’t tasted this author’s prose and are lucky to share a passion for one of his novels’ flavor, you’re missing out. Otherwise, it’s like reading one of Chatty’s epic post about his laundry… You just can’t believe he can write so many words about seemingly nothing.

-Ben.

Bens last blog post..Lord of the Rings, Conquest of Middle Earth…

@Ben: IIRC, by the end of the last chapter, there’s a whole army of them walking through China.

And you like brain hacking? Why have you not become a believer of “Ghost in the Shell”– all of it: 1, 2, Stand Alone Complex and Stand Alone Complex 2: 2nd Gig.

SAC does an excellent job of showing what a series can do to provide a long story arc and yet have independent episodes…

-Ben.

Bens last blog post..Lord of the Rings, Conquest of Middle Earth…

Eric Maziades last blog post..The Rules of Sharing Narrative Control (and Improv)

I’m currently 530 pages into Anathem and while I enjoy the story, the pace is dreadfully slow as we are buried in fictive scholarly discourse and data-dumps. I for one am a bit tired of reading about how humans integrate senses to perceive the world.

At least, there’s less of the ‘screw the plot thread let’s discuss something completely unrelated’ that are the hallmark of Cryptonomicon and the Baroque Cycle.

@Noism: Yeah, he’s not for the faint of heart. Once you get that you can skip the wordy parts with little to no impact, he gets easier to read.

As I go into his later work, I plan to Cherry pick stuff that I found interesting in each book and leave out the rest.

As for Quicksilver (the Baroque Cycle), I’ve read the first two books and abandoned halfway into the third. I’ll likely tackle the part with the Pirate ship which had a nice twist and through the rest out.

I have to say I could never quite get into Stephenson’s books. I wanted to like them, but find them heavy going. But it’s great to read your rpg-related riffs on them.

noismss last blog post..[Alignment Breakdown VI] Neutral Good

Sadly, the more Stephenson writes, the harder it is for me to get through his stuff. DIAMOND AGE was good, but longish for me. CYRPTONOMICON was really long. and the last trilogy was a hard slog (any 3-book hardcover trilogy that gets released as 7 PAPERBACK NOVELS is probably a bit long). That being said, I also got ANATHEM for Christmas, but I am waiting until the summer to read it.