3 ms·
You should read the Baroque Cycle, then Cryptonomicon, then REAMDE, then Fall, Or Dodge in Hell. You can think of it as all one storyline, so the ending of each
by FredPret 3y ago
You should read the Baroque Cycle, then Cryptonomicon, then REAMDE, then Fall, Or Dodge in Hell. You can think of it as all one storyline, so the ending of each book is less critical.
- arethuza 3y agoI'd actually go with publication order myself...
- 7thaccount 3y agoI tried reading the first of the Baroque Cycle like 5 times. Could never make it more than 1/4 through it before losing steam. Anathem was the worst for me though.
- FredPret 3y agoThe Baroque Cycle made double-entry bookkeeping click for me, bizarre as that sounds. The whole cycle is a long, long read. But there are nuggets that make it well worth it.
- endtime 3y agoAnathem really picks up after the first 400-500 pages.
- kelseyfrog 3y agoI laughed. It's both true, and very not helpful. It's the equivalent of a fairly long not-so-great book before a pretty good book. Hard agree.
- dr_orpheus 3y agoAlso agreed, although I enjoyed some of the philosophical debate in the early portions of the book so I would put Anathem higher in books I enjoyed from Neal Stephenson
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- philipkglass 3y agoI am the rare Anathem reader who enjoyed the slow first part more than the active later parts. The initial world immersion was fascinating. The Big Event and subsequent faster paced developments were a lot less memorable. But I also enjoyed the instructional sections about whaling in Moby Dick.
- jes5199 3y agopersonally, I found Anathem to be fun the whole way through, but Baroque Cycle has like only one enjoyable part at the end of book two
- tomjen3 3y agoThe first part of the book is super slow and boring, but it does get much better later on and what they setup is necessary for the story.
- rsync 3y agoYou Should not read fall under any circumstances. Seriously: life is too short. (I say this as a huge NS fan)
- noSyncCloud 3y agoCannot possibly agree more. It's an absolutely terrible book. REAMDE was ok, except the sections about the MMO which frequently left me catatonic with cringe. In Fall, the whole book is that cringe.
- FredPret 3y agoIf you like mythology and scifi, then you should absolutely read it
- prepend 3y agoI really liked Fall, even before the Cryptonomicon tie-in. It’s not high art, but I probably enjoyed it in my top 5 books of the year. Different people have different tastes, I just find it funny when people make generalized statements like “this book is so bad, no one should ever read it.”
- tomjen3 3y agoI read Cryptonomicon, then the Baroque Cycle, then Cryptonomicon (or a long period of years) which has nice tie-ins to each other. However I disliked Reamde enough that I didn't start Fall. Is it better?
- themadturk 3y agoFall is, IMHO, nowhere near as good as Reamde. But I've always been a technothriller fan, and Reamde is pretty high on my enjoyment list.
- FredPret 3y agoI loved both in totally different ways. But I would read the phone book if NS wrote it.