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Downvote me: Infinite Jest is Snow Crash for adults. (But seriously: similar vision of a corporate-controlled near-future; and IJ is great, read it.)
I think your comparison with Snow Crash has swung it for me; IJ is definitely on my reading list now
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was all in to Diamond Age until the ending. It felt like he ran out of steam, gave up, or had someone else write the ending it was such a departure from the rest of the book in pace and perspective. I'll have to revisit it to see what I missed.
> It felt like he ran out of steam, gave up, or had someone else write the ending it was such a departure from the rest of the book in pace and perspective. The same happens in "Seveneves". I love the first part of the book but when he switches to the new story line it feels like he ran out of time. That book should have been at least 2 or 3 books but for some reason he crams everything into 1 book.
I read Snow Crash when I was 13. Then I lost countless hours trying to "live the dream" with Active Worlds [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Worlds
I once toyed around with the idea of making a browser based virtual world for 4chan when I still used it regularly (~2008ish). Heavily inspired by Gibson and Stephenson. Each board would be it's own green wireframe building off a main avenue with shape and size corresponding to the volume of content - and thus would change over time. You would be able to fly around the 'city' and enter buildings to view the threads.…
I read Snow Crash when I was 13. Then I lost countless hours trying to "live the dream" with Active Worlds [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Worlds
I once toyed around with the idea of making a browser based virtual world for 4chan when I still used it regularly (~2008ish). Heavily inspired by Gibson and Stephenson. Each board would be it's own green wireframe building off a main avenue with shape and size corresponding to the volume of content - and thus would change over time. You would be able to fly around the 'city' and enter buildings to view the threads.…
Downvote me: Infinite Jest is Snow Crash for adults. (But seriously: similar vision of a corporate-controlled near-future; and IJ is great, read it.)
I've been trying to decide whether to bother with Infinite Jest or not. I've heard very good things about it, but also that it is a pretty tough read. I think your comparison with Snow Crash has swung it for me; IJ is definitely on my reading list now
Give it 100 pages. If you don't like it by then -- or at least significant chunks of it -- then you probably won't like the whole thing.
I just finished Snow Crash and found it too pretentious and convoluted, like the turn that Diamond Age does towards the ending. Besides that, it introduces a few interesting concepts, but I feel that similar ideas are developed much better in DA. For me, Stephenson's masterpiece is Diamond Age, hands down -- minus the ending, if that could be a thing. The last chapters are too obscure just for the sake of obscurity,…
The reason I love books from Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, Charles Stross, is that, for me at least, they're massive catalysts to my own thoughts and imaginations of what might be possible. If I had to pick one book above others from Neil Stephenson it would be Diamond Age. I just keep going back to it. It's got a lot to say, and I wouldn't mind seeing a similar analysis by the Author of this post.
Stross next to Gibson and Stephenson... hmm. I tried The Atrocity Archives but I couldn't get past the first half. It felt like a pile of nerd paraphernalia force-stuffed into a story line. I mean... Neuromancer is a true masterpiece from the story to the concepts to the succinct writing, just perfect. Snow Crash is less perfect, but exceptionally enthralling nonetheless. What would be a comparable read from Stross?
That's the rest of Stephenson's work.
I'm not sure Snow Crash is really a satire on cyberpunk per se. It's classic SF over-extrapolation of current trends in a funhouse mirror to shed light on things. The first of which is over-privatisation: everything in Snow Crash is a "franchise", including core parts of the government. When YT is arrested she's given a choice of privatised jail providers and justice systems, straight out of the libertarian playbook. The "burbclaves" are what happens when a HOA and gated community upgrades to an armed microstate. And so on.
The other of which is weaponised memes: if these things can be said to be "viral", can you produce a meme or image that's actually an exploit against human wetware?
The review criticises the book for "missing" Google, which I think says more about the reviewer's position in the world. Yes, the world of SC is not dominated by SV companies, but that's not important. The book does contain a souped-up realtime Google Earth, and a "gargoyle" who's a human version of the streetview car.
(Stross takes "weaponised ideas" in a different direction in the Laundry Files, which are essentially Yes Minister/Lovecraft crossover fiction)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, that's always nice to know. Although I don't know how many people know what it means, and I don't think it encompasses all of what makes Stephenson Stephenson, anymore than "satirical fantasy" comes close to encompassing Pratchett's Discworld's writing style.
Certainly not! And I hope I haven't given insult. If so, it was entirely unintentional on my part, and I apologize for my carelessness in so doing. I'll put more thought into my words next time. Don't get me wrong - I don't mean to say that all of Stephenson can be encompassed in those two words. Were that the case, he wouldn't have had to spend time writing books. I mean only that, if you're looking for a handy way…