New Neal Stephenson Book Out - Anathem | Hacker News Reader

New Neal Stephenson Book Out - Anathem

nealstephenson.com

19 pointsfkrueger24 comments

He's been doing a book tour, stopped by Cambridge yesterday. If you're not in a place he's stopping by, check out the Authors@Google talk he gave: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnq-2BJwatE

He makes some long-winded jokes for the first few minutes (mainly about authors being ill-suited to public appearances), starts talking about Anathem around 3:40, and starts the Q&A time around 8:30.

If you can tolerate all the Stephensonian camp, you might enjoy this book. The ending is my favorite Stephenson ending. For extra credit, find the error in his astronomy.

The ending was certainly different to his usual endings. While most of his books feel like the last chapter is missing, this one just feels like the second-to-last chapter is missing.

"The ending is my favorite Stephenson ending."

... you mean, he's included one this time?

The final chapter almost seemed to me like he was writing under duress.

Without wanting to spoil anything, it pretty much goes "Fine, you want an ending you bastards? Here's your fucking ending, they all fucking lived happily ever after. Happy now?"

Hm, you're right -- by 'ending' I was thinking of the climax. I really like how the book turned out.

Wonderful book. As many good ideas as most authors would put into a lifetime of work.

Yeesh. Just put a hold on it with my local library, and I'm already 20th in line.

I am curious what do people think is Stephenson's best book?

The Diamond Age

Cryptonomicon. People will read it to understand the 1940's and the 1990's.

I read it just a few months ago; I consider it one of the best books I ever read. It felt like the confirmation of my geek identity or something like that. Awesome.

Cool this is the one I have heard the most about. I guess I will have to pick up a copy of it.

Bought a copy on Amazon.com for $1.40

following up, finished reading it awhile ago, but finally wrote up a review... So here were my thoughts

http://www.mayerdan.com/2009/01/cryptonomicon_book_review_1....

up next Snowcrash

painful. put it down at page 100. already recycled. oh i know what you are thinking, i must be some sort of caveman who prefers michael crichton. nonsense. when i read fiction, i want to have some fun. this book just isn't fun. stephenson knows how to write fun books. snow crash was a literal page turner...why do you stay up all night turning pages? because the book is fun.

"... why do you stay up all night turning pages? because the book is fun."

Well, sometimes, but "fun" is not how I'd describe the works of David Foster Wallace or Rick Moody, yet they (often, but not always) keep me engage with challenging use of language and structure.

Basically, it's enjoyable to have new stuff to think about, and that can happen in a number of ways.

I'm about 100 pages in as well, not about to stop though. Stephenson one of the few current authors that's not afraid to spend a hundred pages setting up the backstory for everything going on. Which accounts for the beginning of some of his books being exceptionally long and not the most interesting bits of writing that he's done. But the rest of the book - once you get into it - generally makes up for it.

I'm only half way in at the moment, but I must reply and say that I think this book is excellent. It may have helped that I did the first couple of hundred pages on a flight so was a captive audience (well, unless I wanted to watch "Son of Rambo"), but I don't remember feeling that it was a slog.

Son of Rambow is a good movie. Really really good. A feel-good movie if you will. I can't believe you didn't want to watch it!

I think to determine if your tastes are aligned with others' (me, for instance), you'd have to say whether you liked Cryptonimicon and the Baroque cycle. I loved the first, and enjoyed the second.

The lady at the book store said it was great but hard to get into.

You do know that Stephenson's latest works have been nothing like "Snowcrash" or "The Diamond Age", right?

snow crash was a literal page turner

A literal page turner, as in you literally turned the pages?

Seriously though, as I recall an awful lot of Snow Crash's exposition came from a series of interminable dialogues between Hiro and his AI librarian.

"caveman who prefers michael crichton"

That's a damn-bigoted remark.

I like chrichton. And what the hell is wrong with cavemen?

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