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The reason I love books from Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, Charles Stross, is that, for me at least, they're massive catalysts to my own thoughts and imaginations of what might be possible.

If I had to pick one book above others from Neil Stephenson it would be Diamond Age. I just keep going back to it. It's got a lot to say, and I wouldn't mind seeing a similar analysis by the Author of this post.

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Stross next to Gibson and Stephenson... hmm.

I tried The Atrocity Archives but I couldn't get past the first half. It felt like a pile of nerd paraphernalia force-stuffed into a story line.

I mean... Neuromancer is a true masterpiece from the story to the concepts to the succinct writing, just perfect. Snow Crash is less perfect, but exceptionally enthralling nonetheless. What would be a comparable read from Stross?

Man, Stross has written a whole lot of shitty pulp over his career but some of his short stories are kinda kooky [1] and Accelerando [2] was a ripping yarn

[1] http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/toast/to...

[2] http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelera...

I liked his "Missile Gap" -- a novella that combines the Cold War and alternate history in a way that I really liked. I agree with you about the "Atrocity Archives" -- and I love Cthulhu and spy stuff, so you'd think I would have liked it, but I just didn't like the way it didn't take itself seriously -- all this winking at the reader takes away all drama imho.

That's possibly the difference between UK and US humour - self deprecating humour Is a very British thing.

> What would be a comparable read from Stross?

Accelerando [1] isn't in the same league as Neuromancer in terms of style and succinctness, but the idea-density is pretty high and it moves along at a nice pace.

[1] http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelera...

I can skim through most sci-fi stories. But not this one. I had to slow down and focus on what Charles was saying. It's seriously dense reading, and worth the effort.

Accelerando stands up there with Neuromancer, to me.

Accelerando, Glass House, Halting State & Rule 34. His short story collection Wireless also has some great ones. Unwirer (with Cory Doctorow) being one of my favourites.

Admittedly, as a fan of The Laundry Files, that's a major problem with the Atrocity Archives, for the first half, anyways. The second half, after Bob and Mo visit the Atrocity Archives themselves, is much better. We meet a variety of Checkov's Guns, several important people, and get a glimpse of the kind of horror that the Laundry Files is all about. The Concrete Jungle, a short story included in the book, is equally absorbing, and sets the scene for all short stories to come, as well as showing us a bit more of Angleton, and giving us introduction to MAGINOT BLUE STARS.

The second novel, The Jennifer Morgue, is very good, and largely free of the problems you mentioned, but is very different from much of the rest of the series, for reasons which will become obvious when you read it. It's in the third book, The Fuller Memorandum, where the series really hits its stride, and gets going.

However, the series doesn't mind an offside wink or two every once in a while, like Persephone's parenthesized Enochian, and the way The Scrum talks about its problems.

I was all in to Diamond Age until the ending. It felt like he ran out of steam, gave up, or had someone else write the ending it was such a departure from the rest of the book in pace and perspective.

I'll have to revisit it to see what I missed.

> It felt like he ran out of steam, gave up, or had someone else write the ending it was such a departure from the rest of the book in pace and perspective.

The same happens in "Seveneves". I love the first part of the book but when he switches to the new story line it feels like he ran out of time. That book should have been at least 2 or 3 books but for some reason he crams everything into 1 book.

I felt the same, the final group of people was hardly explored. It could easily have been a 2 part series.

See my other answer for some additional commentary on this style in general.

For Seveneves I think there's a combination of factors at play. Maybe he didn't know exactly how to finish it, and maybe (probably) he wanted to leave things open enough for a sequel. Mostly though, I think he was just trying to be subtle. There are a few moments through the climactic scenes that are very easy to miss but have a big impact on the plot line. Overall, I like that some authors have the guts to finish a book without wrapping up everything in a tidy bow (which can often be cliched and overwrought).

This is a pretty common complaint with Stephenson. Probably even more obvious in Diamond Age because the first half is so amazing.

I didn't mind it at all, and I actually kinda liked the ending of Diamond Age in the way it subverted expectations of typical story telling. By the end of Diamond Age a lot of the questions you have in the earlier parts have been answered (what has happened to people, how they've developed, etc.) And a lot of story arcs have also blossomed and/or run their courses. The story itself is about Nell's coming of age and fulfillment of her potential. By the end it's obvious she's achieved both, and I liked that the novel didn't coddle the reader with a typical over the top happy ending where everyone achieves closure, most of the good people live, and every story line is tucked into bed carefully with a glass of warm milk by the bedside. I'm an adult, I don't need that all the time. The real world doesn't work that way, and real stories don't work that way.

One of the dividing lines I have personally for "good" versus "bad" art is whether or not it blooms or withers upon further thought. Diamond Age, I would say, definitely rewards the reader for further thought, because it's a deep and fascinating world with interesting characters and stories. True, the ending of the book doesn't provide complete closure, but to be honest if you want that you can have it just by making up your own ending. That's part of the fun of that book, is that it leaves it open for you to fill in the blanks afterward, and seemingly things looked like they might have worked out alright for Nell.

One of the best books at getting across the concept of not needing complete closure at the end of a book is The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, though that book primes the reader for it whereas Diamond Age doesn't.

Yesssss. Diamond Age really is a boss book. We're pulling a lot of inspiration from these same authors to build Asteria. Heck, even Charles Stross retweeted Asteria last night. It was pretty epic. Check it: https://getasteria.com/

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