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The first couple pages of Seveneves certainly does not impress Man, no kidding. It feels like a very inelegant info dump. While I realize those tend to show up
by bkcooper 11y ago
The first couple pages of Seveneves certainly does not impress
Man, no kidding. It feels like a very inelegant info dump. While I realize those tend to show up in Stephenson books at some point or another, it's a rough way to start.
I liked a lot about Anathem but found Reamde unmemorable. I'd love to see a return to form.
- mpdehaan2 11y agoYep, exactly. Stephenson has a crazy lot of potential - Diamond Age hit pretty well for me, Anthem hit, but some of his other stuff are simply not for me. Readme was a straight forward action story in the middle and I just gave up. He seems to have very very different writing modes.
- phkahler 11y agoDiamond age was a disaster for me. I found the beginning and middle very good and looked forward to more development of a few things. And then it turned into something completely different and weird. I'd rather see the last pages of his new book just to verify he figured out how to write an ending.
- tormeh 11y agoDiamond Age is one of my favourite books. Alongside Cryptonomicon, American Gods and Rainbows End. Reamde was a dud for me as well.
- JoachimS 11y agoAnathem is one of the best reads in years. But Quicksilver and other book in the baroque cycle is impossible to get through.
- CWuestefeld 11y agoAgreed. For me, it seems that on a page by page basis, the writing was phenomenal - he can verbally paint a picture in a way that no one else can. But the whole Baroque Cycle seemed to lack any actual plot, as far as I could tell. I mean, stuff happened, but it wasn't stuff in the course of resolving some central tension to the story, so you had no idea what direction you were traveling in. And I just couldn't go another thousand or two pages aimlessly.