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Comment by cainxinth | Hacker News Reader

The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. Recently got around to finally reading it. I know Snow Crash is considered his best sci-fi novel (and it’s amazing, too), but I think I liked this one even better.

Snow Crash is funny and weird and action packed, but its light-hearted tone diffuses the tension. The Diamond Age, by contrast, had a lot of hair-raising moments and characters I was really invested in.

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I always thought Cryptonomicon would be the go-to stephenson recommendation for nerds, but I guess it reads very dated now.

It's still great.

I think Stephenson's one of those authors where it's worth going through his work in order of publication starting with Snow Crash.

Can call it historical fiction now.

I recently re-read it after reading it for the first time in the early ‘00s.

I think it holds up very well, as a testament to the time it was written in. It was also quite prophetic. There was a lot that went over my head back then.

just started reading Anathem. Not sure how I feel about it, nor if this was a good book to start reading Neal Stephenson. But time will tell :D

FWIW I picked up & put down Anathem a few different times before it "clicked" for me — the made up words made it hard to get into at first. But now it's one of my favorite Stephenson novels.

A less-steep place to start with him might be:

- Snowcrash

- The Diamond Age

- Seveneves

I really like Seveneves, but I do feel like it’s the beginning of a larger piece.

Agreed. I think it itself could've been split into two books, and could easily merit a sequel or two.

But I suppose wanting more is better than the opposite?

I read Cryptonomicon and liked it okay, but I have not been able to get into the other Stephenson books I tried to read.

I like that Snow Crash doesn't take itself too seriously. Reamde was also a not too heavy Stephenson read.

I know I'm on the outside here, but I think Snow Crash is dumb, campy and cartoony.

Diamond Age and Anathem are far better.

Its campiness and cartooniness are very much intentional - nobody names their main character Hiro Protagonist without some very deliberate stylistic choices.

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