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I’m 15% into Cryptonomicon by Neal Staephenson, and it’s living up to the hype. I’ve only read a few of his books: Snowcrash, Anathem, and Fall; or, Dodge in He
by mylons 5y ago
I’m 15% into Cryptonomicon by Neal Staephenson, and it’s living up to the hype. I’ve only read a few of his books: Snowcrash, Anathem, and Fall; or, Dodge in Hell. He’s such a good thought experimentalist and decent novelist. Reading one of his books is almost like sitting in a really interesting philosophy class in college that just makes you think about familiar concepts differently or way more in depth.
- icosahedron 5y agoYeah, I hope it continues to live up to the hype you've heard. I had a hard letdown, but I hope that doesn't happen for you.
- _1100 5y agoI tried to read Cryptonomicon as a first introduction to Stephenson. Kept waiting for the good parts, and actually just stopped reading halfway through out of sheer boredom. A few years later and I read Seveneves. Absolutely fall in love, and read Anathem right after. Loved it too. To this day I still don’t understand why the first book felt so boring and the others didn’t. To make it worse, when you go looking for a synopsis of Cryptonomicon, everyone is so vague!
- d1str0 5y agoCheck out Snowcrash! I liked Snowcrash but thought Cryptonomicon was incredibly boring as well.
- _1100 5y agoI’ll have to do this then, thanks!
- mylons 5y agohaha! I felt the same way about Seveneves, although I guess that doesn’t have as much hype. The premise for the opening chapter was so cool, and then the exhaustive descriptions of spaceships and orbital mechanics and what not was just too dry. Maybe I’ll give it another attempt in a few years.
- abraxas 5y agoYeah, I can't get aboard the Stephenson train either. I tried and failed to finish Seveneves for the same reason. I can't believe someone managed to make an end of the world novel this boring.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- d1str0 5y agoI stopped halfway through and tried reading the sparknotes to see if anything exciting ends up happening but I ended up getting bored and let down just reading those highlights. That said, maybe I was expecting something very different. I enjoyed Snowcrash and I enjoyed various sections of Cryptonomicon’s prose, it was just sooooo boring in the end.
- singlow 5y agoI read snowcrash as a teen but Cryptonomicon was my reintroduction to Neal Stevenson as an adult and it got me hooked.
- OnionBlender 5y agoIs it worth the effort? I've picked up snow crash a few times in the past 20 years and found it a hard read. I really want to enjoy it but I find it hard to swallow. I suppose it has been hard because it doesn't take itself seriously. My sci-fi reading history has been: - several William Gibson novels between 1995-2008 - Most of the ender's game series and home coming from 80's to 2008. - Between 2008 and 2018 I read only 1 novel, which was Ready Player One. - From 2019 to today I've ready 40+ novels: The Expanse, Red Rising, Bobiverse, Planetside, Magic 2.0, Singularity Trap, Vicarious, NPC, Childeren of Time, Project Hail Mary, Fuzzy Nation, Space Between Worlds, The Salvage Crew. I feel like I've exhausted sci-fi and have been checking out fantasy novels like Riyria. I've been having a hard time finding something new to sink my teeth into. Piranesi was weird but good.
- mylons 5y agothe first chapter of snowcrash is one of my favorite chapters in any book i’ve ever read. the rest of the book is great and goes into some really bizarre territory on how to manipulate humans, as well as looking at the effects of a truly decentralized economy + metaverse. it’s really forward looking and prescient for a book that was written in 1988-91.
- kart23 5y agoNo way! I'm reading it too, on page 116. I read Seveneves a couple years ago and really liked it, so I'm giving this a shot. Seveneves I just couldn't put down, the universe and worldbuilding was really great. I feel like Cryptonomicon is off to a slower start, but hopefully I'll form a more complete opinion as I get through more of it.
- jillesvangurp 5y agoI just finished his latest, Termination Shock. Enjoyable and relatively easy for people new to Neal Stephenson. Cryptonomicon is fun all the way through. Anathem is probably his most philosophical book right after the Baroque Cycle. If you enjoy the latter, I'd recommend reading everything the man has ever written. I'll be honest, the first read of the Baroque Cycle took me some time and I came close to putting it down. I've since re-read it about six or seven times. Most of his books get better when you re-read them. I'm looking forward to re-reading Termination Shock probably some time next year.
- beermonster 5y agoI got the audiobook of this recently and have re-started it from chapter 1 a few times after a few chapters. I am really struggling to get into it. I really want to 'get it' as on paper it sounds right up my street. Any advice ? Maybe I should get the actual book?!