5 ms·

Neal Stephenson has a book that assumes such an advance -- it's not a key component of the story, but definitely features large in the title : The Diamond Age.

by Jedd 9y ago

3pt14159 9y ago
That’s my favourite book of his, but I’ve stopped recommending it to non-programmers because I think much of it’s magic is knowing how much of it is actually possible in the future.
- Jedd 9y ago
  Possibly a key indicator of a quality SF idea / author -- how much closer we are to their universe a decade or two later. I've loved everything Neal's written, though I may begrudgingly agree with various critics that suggest he really doesn't do endings very well (REAMDE and Anathem are much, much better on this front). I've tried recommending various books of his to different friends, and I've concluded that I have basically zero predictive capability in terms of working out who would like which of his books. Maybe I've simply failed to grade them properly on the geek scale, but it feels like some of his more technical books appeal to people who don't normally like deep tech, and his deeply social commentary style novels appeal to people who normally push back against strong societal allegory. Which just makes me love his stuff even more.
  - MereInterest 9y ago
    I read somewhere (cannot find source at the moment) that Neal Stephenson would start each day with a complete reread of the book he was working on, editing as he went. This would explain why the first few chapters of his books are always the strongest, because they get the most attention and polish in this method, while the endings tend to be weaker.
    - tjalfi 9y ago
      Were you thinking of William Gibson[0]? [0] https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6089/william-gibson-the-art-of-fiction-no-211-william-gibson https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6089/william-gibso...
      - MereInterest 9y ago
        You are correct, and I was thinking of William Gibson. Thank you for correcting me.
  - mseebach 9y ago
    > though I may begrudgingly agree with various critics that suggest he really doesn't do endings very well (REAMDE and Anathem are much, much better on this front). It seems his "formula" is that the first 90% of the book is world building (and he's absolutely amazing at that), then the last 10% is the actual story, but packed into an impossibly small space, so it feels like everything happening at once. In REAMDE and Anathem, the split feel more like 70/30, but he "compensates" by having so much more story, so it's still everything happening at once, but for much longer. It almost feels exhausting. Seveneves tries a different formula, it's more like 40/10/40/10. Still, I'd wish he'd nail a story that actually goes on throughout the novel, with the world building interleaved.
    - Jedd 9y ago
      Normally with his books I can self-restrain in the 'this is interesting, but I want to keep it going as long as possible' and put the book down for a bit. REAMDE was the first book of his where it was more along the lines of 'jesus christ I must know what happens next, I don't care what time it is' ... and got through the whole thing in a couple of days. Much agreement on the 'exhausting' sensation, but also in a good way. REAMDE was also similarly received by my other half -- a case in point to my earlier observation about being unable to predict which NS book matches (my understanding of) someone's literary tastes. Seveneves also backs up my low-quality self-assessment capabilities -- my other half loved that too, despite always pushing back on 'science fiction'. I read an astonishingly annoying spoiler in an HN comment soon after that book was released, and I've subsequently been very cautious talking about it. Suffice to say the ending of that book is frustrating primarily because it's still not clear if there may be a follow-up work.
  - icebraining 9y ago
    Possibly a key indicator of a quality SF idea / author -- how much closer we are to their universe a decade or two later. I wholeheartedly disagree. As the great (and unfortunately late) Ursula Le Guin wrote, I write science fiction, and science fiction isn't about the future. I don't know any more about the future than you do, and very likely less.[1] Predictions are cute and all, and I enjoy reading them, but SF certainly can't be judged by how predictive it is. [1] http://theliterarylink.com/leguinintro.html http://theliterarylink.com/leguinintro.html
    - __s 9y ago
      Margaret Atwood claimed that if she could predict the future she wouldn't be an author, she'd be a stock trader
  - nvarsj 9y ago
    I would suggest checking out Dan Simmons. He's like Neal in many ways (lots of world building, interesting scifi), but I think a better writer and story teller. I picked up Hyperion based on a review of Seveneves, which suggested the third part was a pale imitation. It and Ilium are amazing.
    - caconym_ 9y ago
      +1 for Dan Simmons and especially Hyperion. It is more what I'd call "science fantasy" in my personal classification system, but it's an amazing book, in my top 5 for sure.
      - Jedd 9y ago
        Thank you both for the recommendation - Hyperion's now queued up on my ebook. Sounds like the first pair of novels are more highly regarded than the second pair?
        caconym_ 9y ago
        I think if I had to rank them I'd say Hyperion is top-tier, the sort of book I can quote from even years after reading it. The others are merely excellent sci-fi novels. I don't know how I'd rank the second book against the last two; they're fairly different and I enjoyed them all.
        nvarsj 9y ago
        Hyperion is the best of the books in my opinion. One of my favorite books of all time. The Endymion books are a different story set in the same universe, and can be skipped if you want.
  - BrandonM 9y ago
    REAMDE was his first book that I read. I was totally captivated by the book, but I hated the ending. That's one of his good endings?
    - egypturnash 9y ago
      Stephenson is terrible at endings.
- strictnein 9y ago
  Similarly, his book Cryptonomicon is quite long and likely would only hold ones interest if they had an interest in Cryptography.
- SolarNet 9y ago
  This is why I like Vernor Vinge - sci-fi authors tend to have a scientific focus based on their background, e.g. physicists tend to focus on physics world building - because he is a computer scientist and is capable of expressing ideas around that at many different levels.
  - r00fus 9y ago
    Yeah, Fire upon the Deep had literally the best first chapter of any AI-based scifi book I'd ever read (I listened to the audiobook). I really wish Vinge would revisit that universe - Deepness in the Sky was great but it was a prequel of sorts.
    - nybble41 9y ago
      Vinge did write a sequel to The Fire Upon the Deep. The title of the sequel is "The Children of the Sky".
- JBlue42 9y ago
  >I’ve stopped recommending it to non-programmers because I think much of it’s magic is knowing how much of it is actually possible in the future. That's sad. Recommend it and they either pick it up and read or don't. That's up to them but why not give someone a chance to be inspired, experience that magic, and think about these things? There are more non-programmers than programmers. They spend money on and vote on things that have an effect on what's possible in the future too. I read it as a teen, am a non-programmer, and still think about it two decades later. Everything we read can help in how we approach the world, especially as the years go by and we experience more of it.

Neal Stephenson has a book that assumes such an advance -- it's not a key component of the story, but definitely features large in the title : The Diamond Age.

by Jedd 9y ago

Neal Stephenson has a book that assumes such an advance -- it's not a key component of the story, but definitely features large in the title : The Diamond Age.

3pt14159 9y ago

That’s my favourite book of his, but I’ve stopped recommending it to non-programmers because I think much of it’s magic is knowing how much of it is actually possible in the future.

Jedd 9y ago
Possibly a key indicator of a quality SF idea / author -- how much closer we are to their universe a decade or two later. I've loved everything Neal's written, though I may begrudgingly agree with various critics that suggest he really doesn't do endings very well (REAMDE and Anathem are much, much better on this front). I've tried recommending various books of his to different friends, and I've concluded that I have basically zero predictive capability in terms of working out who would like which of his books. Maybe I've simply failed to grade them properly on the geek scale, but it feels like some of his more technical books appeal to people who don't normally like deep tech, and his deeply social commentary style novels appeal to people who normally push back against strong societal allegory. Which just makes me love his stuff even more.
- MereInterest 9y ago
  I read somewhere (cannot find source at the moment) that Neal Stephenson would start each day with a complete reread of the book he was working on, editing as he went. This would explain why the first few chapters of his books are always the strongest, because they get the most attention and polish in this method, while the endings tend to be weaker.
  - tjalfi 9y ago
    Were you thinking of William Gibson[0]? [0] https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6089/william-gibson-the-art-of-fiction-no-211-william-gibson https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6089/william-gibso...
    - MereInterest 9y ago
      You are correct, and I was thinking of William Gibson. Thank you for correcting me.
- mseebach 9y ago
  > though I may begrudgingly agree with various critics that suggest he really doesn't do endings very well (REAMDE and Anathem are much, much better on this front). It seems his "formula" is that the first 90% of the book is world building (and he's absolutely amazing at that), then the last 10% is the actual story, but packed into an impossibly small space, so it feels like everything happening at once. In REAMDE and Anathem, the split feel more like 70/30, but he "compensates" by having so much more story, so it's still everything happening at once, but for much longer. It almost feels exhausting. Seveneves tries a different formula, it's more like 40/10/40/10. Still, I'd wish he'd nail a story that actually goes on throughout the novel, with the world building interleaved.
  - Jedd 9y ago
    Normally with his books I can self-restrain in the 'this is interesting, but I want to keep it going as long as possible' and put the book down for a bit. REAMDE was the first book of his where it was more along the lines of 'jesus christ I must know what happens next, I don't care what time it is' ... and got through the whole thing in a couple of days. Much agreement on the 'exhausting' sensation, but also in a good way. REAMDE was also similarly received by my other half -- a case in point to my earlier observation about being unable to predict which NS book matches (my understanding of) someone's literary tastes. Seveneves also backs up my low-quality self-assessment capabilities -- my other half loved that too, despite always pushing back on 'science fiction'. I read an astonishingly annoying spoiler in an HN comment soon after that book was released, and I've subsequently been very cautious talking about it. Suffice to say the ending of that book is frustrating primarily because it's still not clear if there may be a follow-up work.
- icebraining 9y ago
  Possibly a key indicator of a quality SF idea / author -- how much closer we are to their universe a decade or two later. I wholeheartedly disagree. As the great (and unfortunately late) Ursula Le Guin wrote, I write science fiction, and science fiction isn't about the future. I don't know any more about the future than you do, and very likely less.[1] Predictions are cute and all, and I enjoy reading them, but SF certainly can't be judged by how predictive it is. [1] http://theliterarylink.com/leguinintro.html http://theliterarylink.com/leguinintro.html
  - __s 9y ago
    Margaret Atwood claimed that if she could predict the future she wouldn't be an author, she'd be a stock trader
- nvarsj 9y ago
  I would suggest checking out Dan Simmons. He's like Neal in many ways (lots of world building, interesting scifi), but I think a better writer and story teller. I picked up Hyperion based on a review of Seveneves, which suggested the third part was a pale imitation. It and Ilium are amazing.
  - caconym_ 9y ago
    +1 for Dan Simmons and especially Hyperion. It is more what I'd call "science fantasy" in my personal classification system, but it's an amazing book, in my top 5 for sure.
    - Jedd 9y ago
      Thank you both for the recommendation - Hyperion's now queued up on my ebook. Sounds like the first pair of novels are more highly regarded than the second pair?
      - caconym_ 9y ago
        I think if I had to rank them I'd say Hyperion is top-tier, the sort of book I can quote from even years after reading it. The others are merely excellent sci-fi novels. I don't know how I'd rank the second book against the last two; they're fairly different and I enjoyed them all.
        nvarsj 9y ago
        Hyperion is the best of the books in my opinion. One of my favorite books of all time. The Endymion books are a different story set in the same universe, and can be skipped if you want.
- BrandonM 9y ago
  REAMDE was his first book that I read. I was totally captivated by the book, but I hated the ending. That's one of his good endings?
  - egypturnash 9y ago
    Stephenson is terrible at endings.
strictnein 9y ago
Similarly, his book Cryptonomicon is quite long and likely would only hold ones interest if they had an interest in Cryptography.
SolarNet 9y ago
This is why I like Vernor Vinge - sci-fi authors tend to have a scientific focus based on their background, e.g. physicists tend to focus on physics world building - because he is a computer scientist and is capable of expressing ideas around that at many different levels.
- r00fus 9y ago
  Yeah, Fire upon the Deep had literally the best first chapter of any AI-based scifi book I'd ever read (I listened to the audiobook). I really wish Vinge would revisit that universe - Deepness in the Sky was great but it was a prequel of sorts.
  - nybble41 9y ago
    Vinge did write a sequel to The Fire Upon the Deep. The title of the sequel is "The Children of the Sky".
JBlue42 9y ago
>I’ve stopped recommending it to non-programmers because I think much of it’s magic is knowing how much of it is actually possible in the future. That's sad. Recommend it and they either pick it up and read or don't. That's up to them but why not give someone a chance to be inspired, experience that magic, and think about these things? There are more non-programmers than programmers. They spend money on and vote on things that have an effect on what's possible in the future too. I read it as a teen, am a non-programmer, and still think about it two decades later. Everything we read can help in how we approach the world, especially as the years go by and we experience more of it.