4 ms·

So true about the endings! And he's actually aware of it. Well, I'm reasonably happy with all of my endings, but I know that some people feel differently.

So true about the endings! And he's actually aware of it. Well, I'm reasonably happy with all of my endings, but I know that some people feel differently. But as you've noticed, they're different, it's not always the same thing. All I can say is different books end in different ways, and different people have different tastes in what they want to see. I'm well aware that there are certain people frustrated with the endings of some of my books. But I also think that it's one of these things where people's preconceived ideas sometimes drive the way they perceive things. ... So I think that my experience is that once you've written a book with a controversial ending and that meme gets going of Stephenson can't write endings, then that gets slapped on to everything you do, no matter how elaborate the ending is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnq-2BJwatE&t=654s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnq-2BJwatE&t=654s

nocoiner 2y ago
It’s not a meme, the man really can’t write an ending to save his life. But generally the pages other than the last ~25 make it totally worth it (other than that post-death MMORPG book, that one was terrible and just a slog the whole way through).
- roughly 2y ago
  > other than that post-death MMORPG book, that one was terrible and just a slog the whole way through Literally everything about that book except the main plot was fantastic. It read terrifyingly prophetic once he could peel himself away from whatever greek fable bullshit he was on about on the main thread.
- digging 2y ago
  Have you read Termination Shock, and if so, how do you feel it stacks up? It was, regrettably, my first (and still only) Stephenson book, and I thought it was really quite bad in all the ways that matter to me. (The action was good, but I don't read sci-fi for the action.) But I see so much love for him in hacker circles online that I wave on whether or not I should give his more famous works some attention.
  - roughly 2y ago
    Termination shock wasn’t great, no - Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ministry for the Future was a much better work in that vein. I think Cryptonomicon is very good, I really liked Seveneves, Anathem is fantastic, and I liked REAMDE as well, as far as his latter day works go. Snow Crash and The Diamond Age are what made him famous and are both Very good, if a bit dated now.

nocoiner 2y ago

It’s not a meme, the man really can’t write an ending to save his life. But generally the pages other than the last ~25 make it totally worth it (other than that post-death MMORPG book, that one was terrible and just a slog the whole way through).

roughly 2y ago
> other than that post-death MMORPG book, that one was terrible and just a slog the whole way through Literally everything about that book except the main plot was fantastic. It read terrifyingly prophetic once he could peel himself away from whatever greek fable bullshit he was on about on the main thread.
digging 2y ago
Have you read Termination Shock, and if so, how do you feel it stacks up? It was, regrettably, my first (and still only) Stephenson book, and I thought it was really quite bad in all the ways that matter to me. (The action was good, but I don't read sci-fi for the action.) But I see so much love for him in hacker circles online that I wave on whether or not I should give his more famous works some attention.
- roughly 2y ago
  Termination shock wasn’t great, no - Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ministry for the Future was a much better work in that vein. I think Cryptonomicon is very good, I really liked Seveneves, Anathem is fantastic, and I liked REAMDE as well, as far as his latter day works go. Snow Crash and The Diamond Age are what made him famous and are both Very good, if a bit dated now.