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> It's so nice that someone writes books for smart people. I've read a lot of Stephenson and I don't mean this as a knock against him exactly, just an observat

> It's so nice that someone writes books for smart people. I've read a lot of Stephenson and I don't mean this as a knock against him exactly, just an observation: he writes in a way that is inclined to make the HN crowd (myself included) feel smart because we are the target audience. If you look at a lot of the protagonists, many of them are startup founders and game designers and coders and cryptographers and mathematicians, going on "heroes' journeys" where they save the world and/or get the girl. Nerds (aka hackers) who save the day. It's almost like it's engineered to stoke the egos of technologists. Stephenson (who - again - I have read a lot of, and admire in a lot of ways) will always feel to me like a bit of a relic from early Internet culture, where a sort of persona was idolized. The startup founder / hacker / clever man (it was always a man). A similar author to me is Andy Weir.

__rito__ 2y ago
Thanks, I know all this. But if I spelled out all nuances and caveats, then that wouldn’t be a comment, right? Neal's books aren’t for smart people like Quantum Mechanics books are. I know. But then again, what is smartness? Isn't a lot of what smartness is, is having the right background and preparedness? All caveats and nuances can't be included everywhere, right? I read Andy Weir's Peoject Hail Mary. It's something that I liked, yeah, but would have much more appreciated when I was 17. Not right now. Now I like my books to be more wide, covering multiple aspects of reality. E.g., when you read Permutation City, it is not only some SciFi, but it enables you to think deep and hard about consciousness and self. I am yet to read Dune, but I think it is also a "deep" book.
The_Colonel 2y ago
I disagree. Neal's characters are mostly weak and forgettable. Even the storylines often seem to be playing second fiddle. The real power is in his imaginative and thought-through world building. I have close to zero recollection who was the hero in Anathem, instead I often come back mentally to the ideas around the concents and avout society.

__rito__ 2y ago

Thanks, I know all this. But if I spelled out all nuances and caveats, then that wouldn’t be a comment, right? Neal's books aren’t for smart people like Quantum Mechanics books are. I know. But then again, what is smartness? Isn't a lot of what smartness is, is having the right background and preparedness? All caveats and nuances can't be included everywhere, right? I read Andy Weir's Peoject Hail Mary. It's something that I liked, yeah, but would have much more appreciated when I was 17. Not right now. Now I like my books to be more wide, covering multiple aspects of reality. E.g., when you read Permutation City, it is not only some SciFi, but it enables you to think deep and hard about consciousness and self. I am yet to read Dune, but I think it is also a "deep" book.

The_Colonel 2y ago

I disagree. Neal's characters are mostly weak and forgettable. Even the storylines often seem to be playing second fiddle. The real power is in his imaginative and thought-through world building. I have close to zero recollection who was the hero in Anathem, instead I often come back mentally to the ideas around the concents and avout society.