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Comment by sanex | Hacker News Reader

Every interview I've watched with Neal lately I feel like he's tired of talking about a concept from his 2nd (technically third but we don't talk about that) book 30 years ago. He's written so much better stuff since then and I would love to hear him talk about basically any of that.

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I went to a book signing (Fall, or Dodge in Hell) and you could tell he was so worn out over discussing Snowcrash, and that was five years ago. Otherwise a very thoughtful Q&A session, though. A stark contrast from the Neil Gaiman thing I attended. I did find his vision of the internet being a dystopia of so much false information that people were hiring personal moderators to filter it very depressing and prescient. The book was a challenge, but by god I spent my money so I was finishing it. Felt like he had just discovered the book of Genesis and wanted a modern repeat of it. Always felt like you took a deep dive into Wikipedia when reading his books.

Like many Stephenson novels I've read, I felt like Fall contained a pretty good book wrapped inside a pretty bad book.

I finished it, but it was a slog. I could recommend reading the first half and then switching to the Wikipedia summary to see how it concludes.

> Felt like he had just discovered the book of Genesis and wanted a modern repeat of it

Agree and I actually really enjoyed that part of it. He kind of seveneves'd it but I think the back half of them are fun. Wrapping up a story is never his strong suit. Lot of "and everyone sat down for a nice dinner. The end". Always worth it though.

More Paradise Lost's take than Genesis directly. Overall, I loved it, except for the uncharacteristically slow start.

Many well-known artists have this problem. Heck, my gf went to a K&D concert recently, and she described the same phenomenon. People were ok while the new stuff was being played. And since everyone was obviously waiting for it, they played their hits around the end, which is where the people were most excited. And thats justa a recent example. Some of the really good guys usually play over it, and reinvent themselves, ignoring what their fans want to hear.

That said, I personally also prefer his earlier books. Granted, snowcrash was a young mans fever dream, and you kind of grow out of it. A young ladies illustrated primer? That was kinda cool. Quicksilver? Yeah, an unexpected history lesson woven into a pretty long story. Liked it. But seven eves? No. That one kind of killed my love for his work. I dont know why, but he kind of overdid the long-story-arc thing there.

For me it was Termination Shock that finally convinced me to stop reading his books. He just likes to write really long, repetitive and wildly overly detailed books. I was entertained by SevenEves and Reamde but I'm open to the possibility that I might very well react as I did to Termination Shock if I tried rereading them.

Edit: I've read and very much enjoyed a ton of Stephenson (Cryptonomicon, The Baroque Cycle, Anathem) but his recent stuff is tailing off for me. I don't know if it's me or him.

Ahh, I dont feel alone, thats nice. I didn't even know Termination Schock. But glancing over the wikipedia page for it, I immediately know this is definitely not my genre. Climate fiction, no thanks.

I really liked Seveneves - i.e. the first part of it - the secondary add-on story fell a bit flat to me.

> But seven eves? No. That one kind of killed my love for his work. I dont know why, but he kind of overdid the long-story-arc thing there.

The first and the second part of the book (which constitute most of the book) stand on its own. I think it's better to pretend the 3rd part doesn't exist (which is IMHO rather easy since it's just unnecessary) than to discount the whole book.

> (technically third but we don't talk about that)

There's a story that he only allowed that book to be reprinted so that people would stop paying hundreds of dollars for a copy on eBay.

Nobody's forcing him to do interviews... or to start a metaverse startup.

https://youtu.be/vWRlxSGf_ns

He does in the interview.

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