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It's always fascinating to read people's takes on Stephenson's corpus. For me, Cryptonomicon to this day remains one of my most favorite books of all time. It

by cletus 4y ago

It's always fascinating to read people's takes on Stephenson's corpus. For me, Cryptonomicon to this day remains one of my most favorite books of all time. It harkens back to Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in that it meanders through what many would describe as filler. Some seem to dislike that. To me it helped paint such a great picture. I guess some people are more interested in the destination than the journey. Stephenson is much more about the journey. I love his description of those who just seem to have a gift for cryptography with the example of the street map of London [1]. Likewise his satire of academic writing with the paper on beards [2]. But it also captured (at least for me) the spirit of the dot-com era like nothing else I've ever read. It also wove together a cohesive mix of the (then) modern era and the code breaking of the Second World War (eg the abhorrent treatment of Alan Turing by the British Government). I really don't know if it would translate to the small screen (it's too long for the large screen and it would be a crime to try). Snow Crash, which I read years earlier, was highly memorable. It was really the closing days of the Cyperpunk era and I loved the world building. Both of the above suffer from Stephenson's achilles heels: actually ending a story. Anathem I also enjoyed. But the Baroque Cycle I never finished. I can't even remember where I stopped. I think it was early in the third book. I just found it so tedious. Early on I find it way more interesting. [1]: https://tentacle.net/~chrisr/bookshelf/Stephenson,%20Neal%20-%20Cryptonomicon/slide14.html https://tentacle.net/~chrisr/bookshelf/Stephenson,%20Neal%20... [2]: https://tentacle.net/~chrisr/bookshelf/Stephenson,%20Neal%20-%20Cryptonomicon/slide8.html https://tentacle.net/~chrisr/bookshelf/Stephenson,%20Neal%20...

robswc 4y ago
I love Cryptonomicon. I almost put it down though, before I really figured out what it was, so glad I finished it.
InTheArena 4y ago
On baroque cycle, try the audio book version. It’s fantastic and the voice acting is top notch and helps really illustrate the story.
dsign 4y ago
Small nitpick: > the abhorrent treatment of Alan Turning by the British Government. What the British Government did to him reflected what the people who elected that government thought at the time; it was in-line with the moral and civic expectations of the time. It is just that for all us it is often easier to blame the government than to admit the culture of the people of a time or place was at fault. This issue is all the most jarring in writing: government X that is democratically elected does something bad (e.g. spies on its citizens or invades Iraq), and then writers, who are culture-makers, blame the government wholly instead of being more equitable and handing some blame to Joe Plumber, voter, as well.

by cletus 4y ago

robswc 4y ago

I love Cryptonomicon. I almost put it down though, before I really figured out what it was, so glad I finished it.

InTheArena 4y ago

On baroque cycle, try the audio book version. It’s fantastic and the voice acting is top notch and helps really illustrate the story.

dsign 4y ago

Small nitpick: > the abhorrent treatment of Alan Turning by the British Government. What the British Government did to him reflected what the people who elected that government thought at the time; it was in-line with the moral and civic expectations of the time. It is just that for all us it is often easier to blame the government than to admit the culture of the people of a time or place was at fault. This issue is all the most jarring in writing: government X that is democratically elected does something bad (e.g. spies on its citizens or invades Iraq), and then writers, who are culture-makers, blame the government wholly instead of being more equitable and handing some blame to Joe Plumber, voter, as well.