|
i saw Nealeo has a new one. it's about a super storm because of climate change or something? is it good? my thoughts on neal stuff, for reference: SNOW CRASH: is awesome if you're like 12... gets worse every time i re-read it, though i still would say it's an "okay" book. but man it is super juvenile and stuff like Sushi K has aged really bad (if it was ever funny in the frist pace) THE DIAMOND DAGE: super good CRYPTONOMICON: super good THE BAROQUE CYCLE: my favorite historical fiction novels ever... they are so good ANATHEM: super good REAMDE: ehhhhhhhhhh it's Tom Clancy for libertatians lmao SEVENEVES: it's okay FALL OR DODGE IN HELL: this is legitimately the worst novel i have ever read THE RISE AND FALL OF DODO: it was okay... i suspect the better parts were written by the other write tho
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2022 20:12
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 24, 2024 16:08 |
|
|
maybe
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2022 20:13
|
|
|
I usually don’t like him but baroque cycle has me interested, I’d never heard of it before now
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2022 20:13
|
|
|
ChunTheUnavoidable posted:I usually don’t like him but baroque cycle has me interested, I’d never heard of it before now it is far and away better than his other stuff, and not exactly similar to it either... i mean like it's sort of similar to Cryptonimicon as it is sort of a prequel to that, but it also drops almost ALL of the extreme juvenile stuff he is mostly known for i mean yes there is a japanese jesuit priest who wields a katana in it... but overall it's very restrained by his standards (though not in the sense of being brief, it's 3,000+ pages over 5 books after all... lmao)
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2022 20:18
|
|
|
precision posted:i mean yes there is a japanese jesuit priest who wields a katana in it... i am so torn on whether to try these books lmao
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2022 20:21
|
|
|
I'm going to assume it isn't. He isn't a very good writer and I doubt he's improved significantly since his last novel.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2022 21:17
|
|
|
Ananthem was so good. I want more poo poo about colleges turning themselves into walled city states and leaving the world to burn.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2022 21:34
|
|
|
Sid Vicious posted:maybe
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2022 21:47
|
|
|
Seveneves put me off ever reading his poo poo again.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2022 22:28
|
|
|
Baron von Eevl posted:Seveneves put me off ever reading his poo poo again. I liked it except the whole last part of the book
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2022 22:30
|
|
|
Chef Boyardeez Nuts posted:Ananthem was so good. I want more poo poo about colleges turning themselves into walled city states and leaving the world to burn. Was it the bob dylan of books?
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2022 22:32
|
|
|
hell, its great
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2022 22:32
|
|
|
precision posted:
hth OP edit: I think I just don't like Neal Stephenson that much, but his books are referenced everywhere so I always forget and accidentally read them. Actually the Cryptonomicon audiobook was really good
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2022 22:41
|
|
|
lucky number sleveneyes
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2022 22:49
|
|
|
I just finished Termination Shock a couple weeks ago and it was bad-to-ok. There's a lot of "lol it's the future and we're still wearing facemasks and tracking COVID exposure #topical" which made me groan. The overall premise of rich people using geoengineering to combat global warming in ways that will benefit themselves is neat, and it has some of Stephenson's usual sections where he goes into lots of detail about some obscure topic like Sikh gym etiquette, but the overall story never feels like it has any real stakes to it and I was only really invested in one of the characters. Plot summary so you can skip reading it: Global warming is bad. A rich man builds a gun that shoots sulfur up into the atmosphere to counteract some effects of global warming. India is mad and sends a Canadian Sikh to shut it down. He hesitates and then dies when one of the other characters shoots the briefcase full of radioactive poo poo that he's carrying. Termination Shock, which is what would potentially happen when people stop loving with geoengineering, is mentioned but is not relevant to the plot at all.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2022 23:03
|
|
|
i assume the ending of the newest book is absolutely diabolical, op
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2022 23:09
|
|
|
Aardvark! posted:I liked it except the whole last part of the book That was when it started to get good! And then it just stopped!
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2022 23:11
|
|
|
yeah SEVENEVES is weird... the first part is good with Tekla and the beginning of the space station, but then it really slows to a crawl with the space porn and then it suddenly is a weird super-future thing... i guess i can use my audible credit for the month on stephenson and if its bad just refund it... thats what i did with FALL lmao
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2022 23:16
|
|
|
I don't read his books anymore, the reason being that I turned thirteen about twenty years ago
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2022 23:18
|
|
|
I've only read seveneves from hist post-baroque books and that had me quite excited about his newer stuff, but never got to read anything else so far. The new storm book sounds interesting but guess I'll let someone else read and review it for me first.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2022 23:22
|
|
|
Reading helps me sleep. I think that was the point of Snow Crash.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2022 23:24
|
|
|
I was really into him a few years back and adore the Baroque Cycle and Anathem. Reamde was really where I had to reevaluate my tastes but Seveneves was mostly fine. I thought Dodo was really good but I have no desire for more Reamde or his take on climate change.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2022 00:31
|
|
|
The first half of Seveneves is an interesting fact-dump on the specifics of orbital mechanics and some of the big complexities of space travel. However the future space-soldier jacking it after platonically sharing a bed with the main lead, as a cultural norm is extremely weird, even for space science fiction 
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2022 00:31
|
|
|
Count me among the people who liked Seveneves except for the last section.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2022 00:33
|
|
|
Been weird and boring so far with a princess also being a secret agent for Finland and infiltrating southern Texas by crashing an airplane into Waco. His pseudonym airport thriller books are more in line with this than this is with snow crash. I’ve had a really hard time reading much over the pandemic time, and it’s not grabbed me.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2022 00:35
|
|
|
I really hated everything with fake Neil DeGrasse Tyson and especially after Actual Murderer Hillary Clinton got on the spaceship until they jumped 5000 years in the future or whatever. Also wasn't it weird that there were mermaids?
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2022 03:51
|
|
|
Baron von Eevl posted:I really hated everything with fake Neil DeGrasse Tyson and especially after Actual Murderer Hillary Clinton got on the spaceship until they jumped 5000 years in the future or whatever. what op
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2022 03:53
|
|
|
styls trill epic posted:what op It’s spoilers for seveneves. Regarding the second part I didn’t take them for mermaids, I took them to look like Maui did in Moana when he got stuck as a dumpy half shark half human so I found it hilarious Edit: VV you should drop some spoiler tags around that. Seveneves was a perfectly good book that is worth reading that just has 1/3 of another less good book attached at the end. AFewBricksShy fucked around with this message at 03:59 on Jan 20, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2022 03:55
|
|
|
Also one of the main characters is NDT, and another is basically Hillary Clinton, and she shoots a lady to death when she's breaking into the space station.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2022 03:56
|
|
|
Chef Boyardeez Nuts posted:Ananthem was so good. I want more poo poo about colleges turning themselves into walled city states and leaving the world to burn. in the grimdark future, there is only grad school
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2022 03:59
|
|
|
Why does he spell his name like meal he can put anything on the book cover just use Neil like a normal person
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2022 04:01
|
|
|
nut posted:Why does he spell his name like meal he can put anything on the book cover just use Neil like a normal person Fair, he should just have a normal name like acclaimed sci fi author Spider Robinson
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2022 04:06
|
|
|
I've got to wonder what happened in the writing and editing process of Seveneves because even in the first interviews when it was announced it was supposed to be two books.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2022 06:15
|
|
|
I dont know who that is does he write nerd books ?
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2022 06:50
|
|
|
Chef Boyardeez Nuts posted:Ananthem was so good. I want more poo poo about colleges turning themselves into walled city states and leaving the world to burn. Yes, it is probably my favorite book he has written. Baroque Cycle is also very strong. The rest are Ok.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2022 07:02
|
|
|
Nooner posted:I dont know who that is does he write nerd books ? yeah
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2022 07:04
|
|
|
rotinaj posted:Been weird and boring so far with a princess also being a secret agent for Finland and infiltrating southern Texas by crashing an airplane into Waco. i love his ability to make stuff like that boring lmao
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2022 10:52
|
|
|
Nooner posted:I dont know who that is does he write nerd books ? He was involved in a successfully funded Kickstarter that featured a pitch video with a cameo from Gabe Newell making a joke about Half-life 3 being on the way shortly and then the product was a late disaster that didn't fulfill any of its promises!
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2022 11:20
|
|
|
Nooner posted:I dont know who that is does he write nerd books ? Write nerd books? Buddy, he pretty much invented the nerd book genre. Before him, most books were written by nerds, yeah, but few to none were entirely about nerds and for nerds. He's one of the first to really lock that in.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2022 12:08
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 24, 2024 16:08 |
|
|
i dunno i feel like he has transitioned out of "nerd book" into "dad book" territory FALL is the most "old man writes about stuff he doesn't understand" book i've ever read
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2022 12:25
|
|