Neal Stephenson
Neal Stephenson has proven
himself to be one of the most consistently brilliant writers around
today, both just in the books he writes, and in his seeming endless
supply of cool and esoteric knowledge. These two books can
only be said to be 'science fiction' inasmuch as they both have
a whole heck of a lot of science in them. They are, however,
speculative fiction at its finest, without a doubt. Time-wise,
they form the bookends of Stephenson's four novels to date (not
counting The Big U), showing his consistency in excellence as
a writer throughout his career so far.
Snow Crash
This book is well on its way to
being considered a classic. From the opening scene - The Deliverator
(I bought the book entirely because a friend made me read the
first three pages) - Snow Crash captivates. The story is a blend
of cyberpunk, politcal and economic futurism, linguistics, pop
culture, and some damn cool characters. Hiro Protagonist, a sometimes-employed
hacker, pizza deliveryman, freelance researcher and concert promoter,
and Y.T., a skateboard courier, are the center of a whirlwind
of activity.
I am having a hard time going any farther here - I don't want
to summarize plot, or quote all the good lines, but how else can
I convince you that the plot is twisting and captivating, while
the storytelling is superb, blending the surreal, the comic, and
the emotional. This book is so wonderful a story that it
has already been optioned to be made into a movie, but it is so
full of ideas that I have read it twice and do not believe I have
gotten anywhere near the bottom of it. Everyone I know who has
read this book has loved it - I think it is the sort of book which
transcends genres and is simply awesome.
My favorite part of the whole book is the beginning of chapter
36. I was stunned. I laughed until I cried.
I just finished reading this book for the third time, and
once again was struck by how unbelievably cool this book is. I think
that is the best description - there are other books I might say are better
(albeit not many), but I have never read another book that is as out-and-out
cool as Snow Crash. Well, with the exception of Cosmic
Banditos, possibly the coolest book in all of existence...
The
Diamond Age
If Snow
Crash is Stephenson's take on the world in 2020, The Diamond
Age is his take on the future circa 2080 (that's an estimate,
Bjorn has horked off with my copy, so I can't even try to be more
precise). The action's not cyberpunk anymore - now we're talking
nanotechnology, biological warfare, Asia, and education. But Stephenson
is still superb. The Diamond Age features cool characters,
a complex plot mixing personal and macro events, and some truly
cool scenes.
The subtitle, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, draws
our attention to a special book. It is a technological marvel
- an interactive, multi-purpose tutorial book to educate a young
lady, to make her intelligent, creative, independent, and bold.
While much of the plot revolves around the book (much like Infocalypse
in Snow Crash), the story is so much more.
In the Feb 96 issue of Locus, which provides reviewers
a chance to declare their favorite books of the last year, Charles
Brown wrote, "The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson is
a wonderful book which defies comparison to anything else."
I think that pretty much sums it up.
Neal Stephenson has proven
himself to be one of the most consistently brilliant writers around
today, both just in the books he writes, and in his seeming endless
supply of cool and esoteric knowledge. These two books can
only be said to be 'science fiction' inasmuch as they both have
a whole heck of a lot of science in them. They are, however,
speculative fiction at its finest, without a doubt. Time-wise,
they form the bookends of Stephenson's four novels to date (not
counting The Big U), showing his consistency in excellence
as a writer throughout his career so far.
Zodiac
Zodiac shows that Stephenson's
brilliance for naming his characters
started very early in his career. Sangamon Taylor is a sort
of ecological secret agent - his job is to try to make corporations
take responsibility for the havoc they are wreaking on the environment,
and he tends to do so in very dramatic ways. The book is
written from the first person, and it makes for an interesting
read, since Taylor is at times quite a jerk, and is well aware
of that fact. He is also a typically bizarre Stephenson
hero in terms of his primary occupation - you've gotta love an
author whose heroes are things like programmers, mathematicians,
high-speed pizza delivery men, and (in this case) chemist/ecological
James Bond (a description which Taylor actually hates, preferring
to term himself a Toxic Spiderman).
The book is a great read, as most Stephenson books are, and
is chock-full of assorted interesting scientific facts and other
really cool tidbits. In some ways, the book actually reads
a lot like a Tom Clancy thriller, just with a completely different
subject matter as its base. In general, a great book.
Cryptonomicon
While I was reading this book, I came
up with an description that I think is very fitting. Cryptonomicon
reminds me very much of Moby Dick. It is a very dense
book, filled with very detailed descriptions of assorted scientific
topics that are extremely fascinating if you happen to be interested
in the topic (which I usually am), but may be mind-numbingly boring
if you are not (as was often the case when I first read Moby
Dick).
That little comment aside, Cryptonomicon is a brilliant
book.
It covers two time periods simultaneously - World War II and
roughly the present day - with characters that are often interrelated
across the time periods. This can sometimes get a bit confusing,
but for the most part, it just adds yet another layer of complexity
to a very pleasingly complex book.
The stories occurring during World War II generally focus on
the travels of a brilliant young mathematician (on the scale of
Alan Turing, who actually appears as a character in the book)
who is part of the US/British organization responsible for cryptography
during the war, and a Marine Sergeant who gets swept up in the
intrigue that surrounds that secretive organization. The
modern day storyline focuses on a couple of programmers who are
attempting to hit the economic motherlode and end up getting caught
up in the events started by the World War II crowd.
The book contains subplots within subplots, and I know that
I'll need to go back and read it several times before I get a
complete handle on everything in the book. Overall, the
book is fascinating and enjoyable, and basically a really great
read. It is definitely not science fiction in the strict
definition of the word, and actually probably falls in the overall
genre of the Tom Clancy novels, with an eye towards the computer
science types rather than the straight military types (for the
most part).
The only real downside of the book (and the only reason I rate
it as low as an 8) is the aforementioned density. I'm fascinated
by cryptography and all things computer science, but there were
times when the long asides got to be a little much even for me.
So my recommendation is that like Moby Dick, if you find
yourself bogged down in a description of something that is just
making your brain turn off, gloss over it and continue on with
the story.
In general, though, Cryptonomicon is a typical Stephenson
book - excellent writing, great characters, fascinating science...and
most of all, just really, really cool.
Snow Crash
The
Diamond Age