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An Interview with Neal Stephenson
- EdwardCoffin 11y agoI just finished reading Seveneves (his latest book, which this interview is mostly about), and quite liked it. It is quite depressing though.
- surge 11y agoGood to hear, I've been looking for another hard science fiction book since The Martian.
- dcre 11y agoIt's actually a lot more like The Martian than you might think. Most of the book is about how hard it is to live in space.
- grimman 11y agoYeah, I read Seveneves, then The Martian and many things felt very familiar. I have to say, however, I was very annoyed with the style of The Martian.
- rs232 11y agoIt definitely tickled some of the same parts of my curiosity. Grinding hard sci fi.
- quickpost 11y agoSeconded! I really enjoyed it - fun hard scifi and almost like two different books (and sets of characters) in one!
- ipsin 11y agoI'm sort of curious how you set up "and then the moon explodes". Is this the sort of event that has a theoretical foundation in astronomy or physics?
- zwily 11y agoSomething hits the moon with enough force to cause it to break apart. He doesn't speculate at all what it might have been. I think he'd say it doesn't really matter - It happened, now what?
- EdwardCoffin 11y agoIn the book the initial assumption was that it was hit by a tiny primordial fast-moving black hole. They never really follow-up on it, being distracted by issues of survival.
- T-A 11y agoSorta-kinda-not-really. The closest thing to an explanation in the public excerpt [1] goes like this: The most generally accepted theory was that the puff of dust observed by the Utah astronomer was caused by an impact. That the Agent, in other words, came from outside the moon, pierced its surface, burrowed deep into its center, and then released its energy. Or that it simply kept on going out the other side, depositing enough energy en route to break up the moon. Another hypothesis stated that the Agent was a device buried in the moon by aliens during primordial times, set to detonate when certain conditions were met. [1] http://www.nealstephenson.com/news/2015/04/13/seveneves-excerpt/ http://www.nealstephenson.com/news/2015/04/13/seveneves-exce...
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- Symmetry 11y agoNot really, and the scenario has some other problems too[1]. But all sorts of books have fantastic premises, just look at Lord of the Rings! I can accept an awful lot of improbability in a book's setup as long as the plot given that premise makes enough sense. In Seveneves it did so I was happy. [1]http://hopefullyintersting.blogspot.com/2015/06/seveneves-and-roche-limit.html http://hopefullyintersting.blogspot.com/2015/06/seveneves-an...
- grimman 11y agoI spent a long time pondering the premise of the subsequent planetary bombardment. Would the moon fragments really bang into one another the way they do in the book? Would it lead to massive fragmentation and ultimately the aforementioned bombardment?
- jwr 11y agoNeal Stephenson is my favorite contemporary writer. I really think he stands apart — his ideas are big, varied, and interesting, and he doesn't limit himself to one particular corner of fiction. Definitely worth checking out, if you haven't read his work. I'd especially recommend "The Diamond Age" to start with.
- Vaskivo 11y agoI only read The Diamond Age. It's setting is grand, immaginative and full of detail. I was specially enamored with the concept of "ractors". But the last 100 pages left me extremelly dissapointed. Some plot threads go nowhere, others intersect "just because". The whole ending sequence was weird and happened too fast. I guess there was some moral or meaning to the end, but if there was i just didn't get it). And there was a disgusting thing that happened that left me really disturbed. (I'm usually NOT disturbed by that kind of situation. I guess I was just really attached to the character. And the way it was written was tactless and too casual). But I loved the rest of the book. I think of it as a great meal with a crappy desert :) EDIT: About "Ractors": After VR sets in, I can totally see "racting" being the next big thing for entertainment! EDIT 2: Forgot a "not" in there.
- xioxox 11y agoI've read a few of his books, and what they seem to have in common are the badly written endings. He doesn't seem to be able to properly wrap up a book (although I haven't read the last couple of his).
- callahad 11y agoThis is definitely a common flaw. If I recall correctly, he gives up on endings altogether in Anathem, with the narrator literally writing something along the lines of "there's much more left to tell, but this is enough." Seveneves skirts the issue by basically slapping together two rather disjoint stories, ending one "book" by abruptly beginning another. Not the worst flaw in an author, once you know to expect it.
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- beambot 11y agoI still can't believe he willingly worked at Intellectual Ventures -- largely considered the most egregious (successful?) patent troll. I still purchase, read, and enjoy each of his books... but I feel a small pang of guilt knowing that some of his ideas may have originated from a shady organization. Neal, if you're reading... perhaps you could shed some light and assuage our misgivings?
- searine 11y agoAlso ripping off all his fans (including myself) on his failed kickstarter. Stick to books Neal.
- IvyMike 11y agoI know a lot of people feel ripped off, but as a funder, I think it was a genuine, if failed, experiment, and I was glad to fund the attempt. Pre-kickstarter: "They told us a true-to-life sword-based simulation wouldn't be any fun. Help us make one and prove them wrong" Post-kickstarter: "They were right"
- WizzleKake 11y agoHe draws a distinction between Intellectual Ventures and Intellectual Ventures Labs (where he worked): http://corporation9592.com/Intellectual_Ventures.html http://corporation9592.com/Intellectual_Ventures.html
- aaronbrethorst 11y agoSP: Two-thirds of the way into your novel, Seveneves – in fact, on page 569 – you do something kind of crazy. The story suddenly skips ahead 5,000 years. What’s the idea here? It took me maybe a week to read the first 2/3's of the book, and about three weeks to read the last 1/3. In many ways, these two parts feel like completely different books, one of which is significantly better than the other. Also, I was occasionally distracted at the beginning when snippets of dialog from Anathem were reused in the form of exposition in Seveneves. But, that said, I think the book is worth reading, especially the first 2/3's. My personal, quick, rough ranking of Stephenson's bibliography: * Anathem * Snow Crash * The Diamond Age * Seveneves * Cryptonomicon * The Baroque Cycle * Zodiac * Reamde * The Interface * The Big U Haven't Read * The Cobweb * The Mongoliad
- EdwardCoffin 11y agoCould you cite any of these bits of reused Anathem dialogue? I've read Anathem countless times, and didn't notice anything other than "plane-change maneuvers are expensive" or something to that effect, which I think is more of a truism than reused dialogue.
- aaronbrethorst 11y ago"Plane change maneuvers are expensive" is the one I remember off the top of my head, but I do distinctly recall another line elsewhere in the book. Sorry I can't be more specific.
- nitrogen 11y agoI noticed a lot of parallels between Snow Crash and Anathem. Both had dialogues meant to educate the reader, and there is a little overlap in the concepts explored in both books.
- db48x 11y agoPlane change maneuvers _are_ expensive; reusing that sentence can't possibly detract from a book.
- fromtheoutside 11y agoOh, Neal Stephenson, ins't that the guy from this one sword fighting game on kickstarter?
- rosser 11y agoThis is sort of like saying, "Oh, Richard Stallman. Isn't that the guy who sings Hungarian folk songs?"
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- basseq 11y agoI'm just getting into Neal's work. I saw Snow Crash on a list of best sci-fi (maybe via HN) and started there. I then read Diamond Age and just finished Cryptonomicon (which I really liked—probably my favorite of the three). I started reading Anathem, which I know is seen as his "seminal work" but it's been a slow start for me: all the made-up vocabulary combined with strange names makes it a very disjointed reading experience. I read the first chapter of Seveneves back in May, so that one is on the list, as is The Baroque Cycle.
- jon_dahl 11y agoI had the same experience with Anathem. It is a little hard to get in at first. But about 200 pages in, it really starts rolling. Great mix of world, plot, characters, and ideas. (Ultimately, it is a mashup of Plato and quantum mechanics.)
- basseq 11y agoThat was my sense as well, so trying to gut through it. I had a similar problem with Infinite Jest (i.e., getting into it), but know the payoff is well worth it.
- jkestner 11y agoYeah, long-timescale math monasteries just seemed like an attempt to bore me to death. There's no initial event, no mystery to grab you — but when that does kick in, you're firmly grounded in this world. Then it's a great story, until that ending, which takes it even another step further out.
- rs232 11y agoIf by chance you missed it, there is a glossary at the end of the book. (I've seen some comments from people who didn't notice until they finished it.) Also, if you enjoyed the Shaftoes and Waterhouses of Cryptonomicon, consider putting the Baroque Cycle before Seveneves.
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- gary_ 11y agoFYI ... we've posted some behind the scenes video as well as some illustrations at Neal's site -- http://seveneves.lithive.com http://seveneves.lithive.com and will be sharing some beautiful illustrations of some of the vehicles in the next day or so.
- hoopdr 11y agovideo is interesting. thanks.
- clavalle 11y agoI really hope Seveneves is the first of a series. It left a few seemingly important dangling questions and teasers. Also, I wonder if he's angling for an RPG spinoff. Not to give too much of the last third up but the character types felt very 'rpg class-ish' to me at the end complete with complementary factions.
- contingencies 11y agofor the last few decades, the kinds of really smart geeks who in the 50s and 60s would have been building rockets or something have been moving to Silicon Valley and creating startups to make little apps. Ouch! So close to home. So true. But now we've automated the process - http://tiffzhang.com/startup/ http://tiffzhang.com/startup/ - those people can get back to something more useful, like finally learning IPv6 to allow us to build mesh networks for swarming spacecraft to evade inbound asteroids.
- davidw 11y agoI would pretty much buy anything Stephenson writes, but I wasn't all that happy with this book. It's very depressing in that you get a look at the deaths of billions of people, something they all know about well ahead of time. I found myself reading it the same way Cory Doctorow describes here: http://boingboing.net/2015/06/03/neal-stephensons-seveneves.html http://boingboing.net/2015/06/03/neal-stephensons-seveneves.... > Stephenson builds up a sense of brutal inevitability, of humanity's insignificance in the cosmos that had me putting the book down for hours at a time, unable to read on (but my curiosity always overcame my sorrow). The final (future) part of the book was more fun; I could have gone for just that with some references to what happened in the past. Indeed, there were various things that didn't feel wrapped up at the end, and I wonder if there's a sequel coming or he's just going to leave it like that. Perhaps because I didn't care much for the first part, I found myself more critical of some of the science fiction too.
- Hominem 11y agoI'm almost done with seveneves and the thing that gets me is how defensive his wrighting has become. He explains every semi-technical concept in excruciating detail as if he expects an army of angry nerds to tear the book to shreds if he doesn't explain early research into how whips work or the theoretic underpinnings of how swarming algorithms work.