October Group Read: Neal Stephenson

Welcome to the Neal Stephenson group read!

Neal Stephenson is a writer of speculative fiction whose works explore areas such as mathematics, philosophy, linguistics and the history of science. He has written novels in a variety of subgenres, including alternate history, cyberpunk and hard science fiction.

Stephenson's books can be challenging to read, because of the lengths of some of them and his many digressions, often filled with scholarly or technical detail, from the main plotlines. If you're new to Stephenson and are not sure where to start, Snow Crash and The Diamond Age are very popular, and they are shorter in length and more accessible than some of his other works.

Note that the October SFFKIT theme is Historical and Alt-Historical SFF. Several of Stephenson's works, including Quicksilver (the first in his Baroque Cycle) and Cryptonomicon, would fit this theme.

Let us know which Stephenson book you plan to read in October, and feel free to share your recommendations!

Planning on The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. Read many others by him already and always enjoy them.

I might read Anathem which I own, or I might look into #2 of the Baroque Cycle King of the Vagabonds

Nice to see Cryptonomicon will also fit the October SFFKIT! That just might motivate me to get this one off my TBR pile.

>2 majkia: I'll be interested in hearing what you think of this one. I've not read it yet, but a friend whose tastes I trust recently recommended it to me.

>3 Kristelh: I was puzzled by your comment at first because I thought The Confusion, the book that I will be reading, was book #2 of the Baroque Cycle, until I realized that it's actually books #4 and #5. :)

>4 lkernagh: I really want to read this one, but I decided that I'll try to finish the Baroque Cycle first. Last year, I was undecided about which to read first. The Baroque Cycle gives the backstory of some of the characters, so it was a toss-up between chronological or publication order. In the end, my library hold on Quicksilver came in first, so that settled it.

I'm leaning toward Diamond Age--I've already got it on my shelf, and it also fits the RandomCat :)

>6 whitewavedarling: Great choice! I hadn't thought of the RandomCAT connection. :)

Hi All, this will be my first Group Read! I'm not exactly sure how all this works, but I've ordered Snow Crash from the library!

>8 pinetastic: Welcome! I hope you'll enjoy your first group read. They are very addictive. I always end up joining more than I can handle. :)

We are a very informal group. There are no rules or schedules for this group. Just pick any Neal Stephenson work to read during the month and share your thoughts here.

I heard Neal Stephenson speak earlier this year at our local Writers Festival and planned to follow up by reading another of his books.
I'll probably go for one of his more recent ones, need to get something ordered from the library, probably Reamde.

>10 avatiakh: I loved Reamde.

9mathgirl40: Thanks! I would never have picked a Neal Stephenson work on my own. So it will be interesting to see if I've found a new favorite.

>12 pinetastic: Glad to hear it. Group reads are great opportunities to try something new! Whether you end up liking the book or not, we'd love to hear your opinion on it.

I've had Anathem on my shelf for a few years now, so I'm planning to read that.

So I've read about 100 pages of Snow Crash. It's definitely the most bizarre introduction to a book I've ever read. There have never been higher stakes for pizza delivery. Great critique of modern America, where we put more resources into fast food delivery than say--- improving health care.

It's a hard book to get into because there is so much "world building" where a new technology has to be described. Or you have to figure out by context what a "jeek" is. I'm guessing this is common in science fiction works. But it kind of makes my brain hurt. Rereading to understand and visualize what kind of machine/creature/tool the author is imagining.

But there's been enough plot and character development to keep me interested.

I am struggling to get into Anathem. I'm committed, but it's making me feel monumentally stupid. Has anyone read it? Does it eventually make sense?

>15 pinetastic: I'm not sure if what you describe is common in SF works. A lot of authors do describe invented terms in detail, but Stephenson tends to make the reader work a bit. "My brain hurts" is not an uncommon reaction to Stephenson's writing, but for me, the rewards are worthwhile. I sometimes feel this way about William Gibson's writing too.

>16 virginiahomeschooler: Well, many of Stephenson's books have made me feel monumentally stupid. Actually, I heard him at a talk many years ago at a "Physics Festival" organized by a local institution here in town, the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and he made me feel pretty stupid then too. :)

As mentioned, Stephenson's works are indeed challenging to read, but that's one of the reasons he has such ardent fans. I recall that Anathem did start off rather opaque and became clearer as the story proceeded. I started really enjoying the book once I got to know the characters better. However, Stephenson does tend to go off on highly technical or philosophical asides, and it's probably best not to worry about them too much and just plow ahead.

>17 mathgirl40: I'm going to continue with it. I read Seveneves, and while it was fat and "thinky," it didn't have the level of "HUH?!?" that this one does. But based on what you said and a few reviews I looked up, it seems like maybe it's just the world building I have to get through, and then I should understand more of it.

>18 virginiahomeschooler: I found the Wikipedia page for Anathem helpful. You should avoid reading the Plot Summary and Characters sections to avoid spoilers, but the sections describing the world and Stephenson's influences might be useful.

>19 mathgirl40: thanks I'll look it up.

Thanks mathgirl40! This helps me plug along!

I am reading The King of the Vagabonds. Which is going to work for RandomCat, SFFkit (alternate history), and the group read of author Neal Stephenson.

>11 Kristelh: Thanks. I'm enjoying Reamde and am about 6 hours into the 38hr audio, they've just arrived in China. I decided to do this as an audio as I have a lot of gardening to do in the next couple of weeks. Doubt I'll finish this month.

>23 avatiakh: I LOVED Reamde. Particularly the Russian!

>22 Kristelh: I hope you're enjoying it. I'm currently reading about the further adventures of Jack Shaftoe in The Confusion. He's an interesting character, though my favourite in the Baroque Cycle so far is Daniel Waterhouse.

>23 avatiakh: Don't worry about finishing this month. I'm only going to get through half of The Confusion by the end of the month. Since it's actually two books interleaved into one, I suppose that's not so bad. :)

In any case, I'll be quite happy if this thread continues into November, or even later. It's really impossible to read Stephenson quickly.

>24 majkia: That's one I've not read yet, but I will definitely get to it one day, especially after seeing your enthusiastic recommendation.

There's an interesting interview with Neal Stephenson from 2017 in Maclean's magazine:
https://www.macleans.ca/culture/neal-stephenson-on-magic-technology-and-the-lure...

Apparently, Justin Trudeau, Barack Obama and Bill Gates are all fans of Stephenson!

Just finished Reamde, really loved it. I raced through most of it the past few days as I was out in the garden and I find these massive reads make great audiobooks especially when John Lee is narrating. The battery on my iPod was low last night so I finished the last 100 or so pages with my paper copy as I couldn't wait for the iPod to recharge.

>28 avatiakh: Glad to hear you loved Reamde. I too like listening to massive reads on audio when I can get the e-audiobook from my library.

I finally finished The Confusion. It's not among my favourite Stephenson works but it was, as with every Stephenson book, a thought-provoking one. This one had a lot of exploration of economics and the development of currency.