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Comment by hevelvarik | Hacker News Reader

I’m surprised that he isn’t wealthy on the back of his world famous novels, and also why some of his novels haven’t been brought to cinema. Snow Crash would make a good film in the Internet age.

Perhaps, this essay is old though, and by now he is and some of them have been.

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I just wish he would go back to writing hard sci fi books like Snowcrash. IMHO after/during Cryptonomicon he started writing books only very serious people would enjoy.

I admit I haven't tried to read anything after his baroque cycle. (Which I couldn't finish. I got so bored.)

Did he ever recover from that desire to write those overly complicated books?

Anathem is really good, and possibly his best. Several big ideas that will make you close the book and go for a long walk to think about, and it also has a real ending. Deserves and rewards multiple readings.

Reamde is a lightweight page-turner, but fun.

Seveneves and Fall: meh.

D.O.D.O.: can't say anything good about it. Only Stephenson book I've donated to a drop-box.

> Reamde is a lightweight page-turner, but fun.

Read it a couple of times. Totally agree. This, but at a larger scale (like Snow crash) is the kind of Stephenson I love!

Thanks for your thoughts. I think I'll try reading Anathem.

I didn't follow up with the entire novel, but the opening chapter to Seveneves had some of the energy of Snowcrash.

Um, now when you say so, I think I actually bought the ebook on some platform and started reading it. Then I was distracted.

It's so hard to read books ~20 years later. So many other things pulling for your attention. Like HN.

https://www.engadget.com/2019-12-14-snow-crash-tv-series-hbo...

Ready Player One was competently directed by freaking Steven Spielberg with a "$155–175 million" budget and still sorta disappointed lots of us who had read the book.

Perhaps some awesome scifi books are just better left to the imagination?

Edit: I felt the same after watching "Ender's Game" (2013).

Edit 2: I felt that the TV adaptation of Neil Gaiman's "Good Omens" featuring David Tennant and Michael Sheen was absolutely brilliant. I hadn't gotten around to reading the book yet though...

Both Ready Player One and Ender lacked grittyness and good actors to carry the roles. Turning them into fluffy afternoon cartoons. Good Omens on the other hands was solidly built around good acting and a style that fit the book.

This article also says that Amazon may develop William Gibson's "The Peripheral". https://www.engadget.com/2019-11-13-amazon-william-gibson-th...

I'd love to see that!

How do you know he isn't wealthy?

He wrote as much, it's at the end of the essay.

Which is 22 years old now.

HN title said 2015 when parent wrote that comment.

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