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I loved this essay, and own a paperback copy. I also loved his novels Zodiac, REAMDE (a fast, fun read), and Anathem, which was a tough read at first, but I ended up loving it. (I started the first novel of his Baroque Cycle but got bogged down and never finished those ones.)

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If you read Zodiac, Anathem and (part of) the Baroque Cycle I assume you’ve read his other books (Cryptonomicon, Diamond Age, Snowcrash...). If not, lucky you!

I discovered Stephenson with Anathem and I was hooked. This book doesn’t get a lot of love it seems, maybe because it’s not Stephenson's usual cyberpunk / near future sci-fi (and maybe because of all the made-up words and history—there’s even an xkcd comic about it). But (SPOILERS) you gotta admire a book that starts like The Name of the Rose and finishes in a nuke-propelled starship.

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