For those who observe.

And I may be coming in the slower end of the spectrum, every paragraph Im learning new words, every chapter Im learning new theory.

I started with seveneves, then Anathem, and now cryptonomicon—which I would say is the hardest of the three to read. Still, im loving it. The way Neal Stephenson gives you just enough for the concept to click, expecting you to puzzle it out for yourself feels like a relationship directly with the author. Every writer has their strengths, Neal’s is definitely the dialogue, I’m on the edge of my seat each time I start to read the back and forth, sometimes needing to step away and decompress from how much information and nuance I’ve just taken in (this goes double for Anathem).

Just a simple glaze post, I’m planning to write a longer review for Anathem, but for the life of me I cant put into words how much enjoyment I got from the book. Thanks everyone suggesting to push through on some of the harder parts.

I was just reading Some Remarks and in the chapter chronicling Neal’s Slashdot interview he cites the book Skeletons on the Zahara by Dean King. I looked it up and it is an incredible true story of survival. I immediately had to purchase it.

Just wanted to pass along a book that our favorite author found worthy of his time.

…is whatever one I just finish reading.
Today, it’s Fall.
I can’t believe I disliked this book when I first ‘read’ it. After reading it now, I realize I did NOT finish it.
Re-reading it, I was amazed - once again - at how prescient Stephenson is.
The break down of a communal shared reality struck me as good as any other theory on why we have a traitor in the White House today.

Fall had good company - my first NS book was Cryptonomicom, which I also abandoned, only to devour a year later.
Likewise the Baroque Cycle - I put it down after Newton was using his own eyeball for research - “re-read” it during the pandemic and wished it wouldn’t end.
Snow Crash (I know!) - was another one, finally loving the story when I let it come to me.

Anathem, Seveneves, Reamde, Diamond Age, Termination Shock, DODO, The Cobweb, Zodiac, The Big U - were all books I read the first attempt because I let the story unfold - and could not put them down.

I’ve now read every one of his novels at least twice, some up to 6x - except Polostan, which I’ll fix in a week or two so the story is fresh when volume two is published this autumn.

Thread at bluesky

root@eruditorum.œrg

!u/root2702.bsky.social

SLASHDOT READER, 2004: In a fight between you and William Gibson,

who would win?

NEAL STEPHENSON: You don't have to settle for mere idle

speculation ... The first time was a year or two after Snow Crash came

out. I was doing a reading/signing at White Dwarf Books in Vancouver.

us philo,

Cool punch card art!

In TDA Nell's school principal, Miss Matheson, mentions having been a thrasher and uses the term 'chiseled spam' - a quote from YT in SC. And her wheelchair has smart wheels that adapt to terrain. Like YT's board.

Yeah OK I'm 30 years late to that conclusion but it still startled me.

That makes two Neal-verses I'm aware of - the other links The Baroque Cycle, Cryptonomicon, REAMDE and Fall.

I don't know where to start because this is the wildest book I've ever read. I even wonder if this can be categorized as a novel. I feel like Neal has unearthed an entirely new genre of literature. On the surface, it connects two storylines—one during World War II, where Lawrence Waterhouse helps the Allies with their codebreaking efforts and Bobby Shaftoe goes on a few military misadventures, and the other in the 1990s, where Randall Waterhouse becomes involved in a data haven operation in Manila. But this is just the tip of the tip of the iceberg.

This book has cryptography, early computers, programming, military strategy, economics, currency, business, telecommunications, mining, and ten other things that I'm forgetting. I will never forget the chapters where Neal Stephenson spends 8–10 pages explaining the relationship between broken chain links and bent spokes on a bicycle, the optimal wetness of cereal, the mathematical modeling of Lawrence's horniness, and, ultimately, the Goddess of Technology, Athena. Entire chapters are dedicated to things that aren't even required for the story. Weirdly, I loved most of it.

My favourite character is the toughest SOB, Goto Dengo.My man survives an attack in the ocean, swims for God-knows-how-long, only to end up on an island filled with cannibals. As if that wasn't enough, he makes a deal with them by teaching them how to find gold, eventually gets rescued, and then ends up building an underground tunnel in an unknown country for an unknown reason. This guy deserves his own movie, for God's sake.

My favourite part of the story was when Randy spent a month and a half in a Philippine prison. His ingenious ideas to avoid getting phreaked were impressive. I also enjoyed the detailed explanations of the Linux commands he uses, programming styles, etc.

That said, the book definitely has problems. It is too long. There are sections that could easily have been shortened, and the female characters, apart from America Shaftoe, didn't really make much of an impact. I also felt the ending was rushed. My assumption is that Neal wrote whatever came to his mind in the beginning, and after 1,000 pages, he suddenly remembered that he was writing a novel and had to finish the story. This probably didn't happen, but it makes me laugh thinking about it.

This is one of those books where you can confidently say that the journey is more interesting than the destination. It is ridiculously long, and occasionally exhausting, but it is also one of the most intellectually entertaining novels I have ever read.

I'd rate it 4/5. I'd have given it 5/5 if it was under 700 pages

I remember the day I learned that pro-wrestling was "theatre". I didn't completely lose interest in it, but I stopped seeing it as a sport and it eventually fell by the wayside with most other childish things.

What would it take for us to view the Internet, the way we view pro-wrestling? Can you imagine the day when the internet loses all credibility? Obviously there has been an erosion of news trustworthiness, but could a few billionaires really engineer a massive event that just puts the nail in the coffin?

Setting of part of Polostan

About 2/3rd the way through.

So I had a thought. The way this is written and told, it could have been a Bible story (any other religious text for that matter). The parallels are enthralling. Let's say 10,000 years from now when the contents of this story become a reality - it will be THE Bible story right?

It has me thinking: for people who believe religious texts and stories as the literal word of God - the way I feel bringing this story to life must be how they feel about their actual reality right?

If someone took the King James and wrote it like NS holy hell churches would fill pews.

I love this book so much 😔

I am reading Neal Stephenson for the first time. And his writing style is fascinating. Just yesterday, I read this passage and I couldn't stop laughing for 5 mins. Now I will remember this whenever I am in Sweden and or if I meet any Swedish person.

Another "I had a really hard time getting into the Baroque Cycle, but now that I'm in it I'm loving it" post.

I wanted to share: I'm listening to the audio books, and, given the complexity of the story I miss plenty of details here and there.

To help me along I created a Gemini Notebook with the text from the books. It has been a great tool, I can ask things like What was in that letter from Eliza to Rossignol while she was traveling up the Elbe (minor spoiler) and it will tell me, helping me connect the dots that I may have missed. You have to prompt carefully to not reveal spoilers, but, otherwise, it's been super helpful.

I can't share my tool, but if you use Gemini and want to set it up you can PM me for help.

I just finished The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., a fun, quick, not so serious read. Quite enjoyed the academic atmosphere of it and the detail they bring to the though process or characters of each time period.

Not my favorite NS book, but still solid.

Anyone has read the sequel by Nicole Galland (co author or the first book with NS) ? Does anyone has good things to say about it?

I’ve read just about every one of his books. Loved all of them. At this point in my life the best opportunity to enjoy them again is in audio format. From my limited experience of audiobooks, the quality of the narrator is so key. Recommendations?

Spoilers ahead… like, literally the next 2-3 lines down.

The book was fucking brilliant. I loved it and it‘s categorised as one of my top rated now.

However.

Was the constant sexualisation of YT really necessary? Especially since she‘s 15?

I get the book is a pastiche, it‘s a semi-pisstake of the cyberpunk genre in one of the best ways possible, and I understand that the sex scene may well have been a part of that as all good cyberpunk novels have one or two that kinda just get shoved in… but… with her? Is it supposed to demonstrate such intense moral corruption in Raven? Is it to demonstrate that YT is a stupid young teen? All of the above? That all could‘ve been demonstrated in a bunch of other ways, I certainly didn’t want or need a detailed description of a 15 year old‘s climax.

Idk, the book’s good, concept was great, and I just bought another Stephenson book to read over the coming weeks. It‘s just that one „little detail“ I’m hung up on.