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Comment by The_Colonel | Hacker News Reader

Stephenson is for me a hit and miss author. I adore The Diamong Age, Anathem, Seveneves. I didn't finish the first book of Baroque Cycle and Cryptonomicon. Some of his other books I don't plan reading since I don't expect them to be good.

I'd say Anathem is his best book overall, but the first 100 or so pages is almost pure world building without much action which might turn people away.

Seveneves is close and is more accessible from the beginning. Just skip the last (after time jump) part of the book which is... unnecessary and bad.

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After the time jump was fantastic. Is it directly related to the first half? Maybe not, but it's a well thought out picture of what happens as that timeline continues on. Plus it's just fun. I love the entire book (Seveneves).

> a well thought out picture of what happens as that timeline continues on

TBH it seemed very ... "idealistic" in a way, "racist" would be another word, but I'd like to avoid the word's moral connotations. Just the idea that the descendants of this particular Eve are physically strong and then descendants of this Eve are intellectuals. It kinda seemed like a fairy tale instead of an actual development, which would realistically end up way more "messy".

My impression was that with this part he was trying to come up with his own version of the fantasy trope of different races with different characteristics (orcs, elves, men, etc), and imagining a situation that could produce such.

I had trouble with the Baroque Cycle and did not bother to finish, but stuck with Cryptonomicon and it was completely worth it. Otherwise agree with your picks.

On Seveneves, no two people seem to agree on which half of the book is "bad", but I will say in general that the first half is more popular among the base. I thought the latter was fine.

Anathem was almost unreadable due to the aforementioned world building but also apparently needing to redefine every single last word in the dictionary.

But Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash and REAMDE were amazing.

> I didn't finish the first book of Baroque Cycle

I found the first one a slog, but the second one more than made up for it. It’s end to end swashbuckling fun. The third one is pretty clever, painting a colourful, accessible summary of how englightenment philosophy and science, and debt-based capitalism shape the modern global economy.

(At least… that’s how I recall them >15 years on)

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