# Neal Stephenson: recommendations for next book after REAMDE? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [January 2, 2026, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neal-stephenson-recommendations-for-next-book-after-reamde/1026287 "2026-01-02T23:45:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ferris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ferris/32/11573_2.png) [@Ferris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferris)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2026, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neal-stephenson-recommendations-for-next-book-after-reamde/1026287/1 "2026-01-02T23:45:49Z")
From what I can gather, his other works are either cyberpunk, sci-fi (e.g. Snow Crash) or something like steampunk (The Baroque Cycle)? I enjoyed the pace and settings of Reamde, but don’t know what to choose next. Willing to try a different genre to ‘standard’ sci-fi or historical thriller. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2026, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neal-stephenson-recommendations-for-next-book-after-reamde/1026287/2 "2026-01-03T01:08:38Z")
He has a few enough books that people will just start listing them. My recommendation is _Seveneves_. I guess it is sci-fi, but 90% of it is all stuff we have today, it just happens to be space stuff. It’s been awhile since I read it, but I think it has a similar thriller type pacing as _Reamde_. (Except for the long breaks to teach you orbital mechanics.) An obvious followup would be _Fall; or, Dodge in Hell_ which is sort of a sequel to _Reamde_, because it shares some of the same characters. I didn’t like it as much, though. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2026, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neal-stephenson-recommendations-for-next-book-after-reamde/1026287/3 "2026-01-03T01:43:43Z")
For me, he has more misses than hits. I hated _Seveneves_. I hated _Fall_ so much I quit maybe a quarter way through. I hated _Quicksilver_ so much I never touched the two sequels. I liked _Reamde_ okay, and _Ananthem_ was pretty interesting (but heavy). _Diamond Age_ is a pretty okay lighter reading book. _Snow Crash_ is okay, has some fun bits, but is pretty dated. ([Here](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-neal-stephenson-book-fall-or-dodge-in-hell-spoilers/835268/) is a SDMB thread on _Fall_.) ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2026, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neal-stephenson-recommendations-for-next-book-after-reamde/1026287/4 "2026-01-03T03:32:33Z")
Perhaps [Zodiac](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac_(novel))? It’s a now-past near future, with a lot of the fun, lighter dialog of his earlier works, and of course, much shorter. It’s something of an environmental thriller. And since it isn’t a huge tome, it’s a fast, light read. Of course, if you _like_ the big, fat meandering style of his later works, perhaps the [Cryptonomicon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptonomicon). It’s a huge work, but it’s a single story (the Baroque cycle features ancestors of the characters started here IIRC) - a mix of techno-thriller, treasure hunt, and dive into the historical code-breakers of WW2 and “modern” (for 1999) codebreaking/encryption. It’s not exactly fair or fully truthful, being fiction after all, and IMHO (again, I’m a fan of the earlier works) it gets bogged down and sidetracked option, but it’s still got genuine moments of greatness (the prologue and dental description sequence always make me grin). ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2026, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neal-stephenson-recommendations-for-next-book-after-reamde/1026287/5 "2026-01-03T19:17:34Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > _Snow Crash_ is okay, has some fun bits, but is pretty dated. It is explicitly dated in that enough precise years are given that you can pretty much pin down the exact year in which the story is taking place [let’s say ~2002, give or take]. An interesting approach instead of “twenty minutes into the future” (or the past, by now). But I always have always liked it, with its cute “fun bits”. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2026, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neal-stephenson-recommendations-for-next-book-after-reamde/1026287/6 "2026-01-03T19:30:00Z")
I was thinking more of the bicameral mind crap, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![Ferris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ferris/32/11573_2.png) [@Ferris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferris)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neal-stephenson-recommendations-for-next-book-after-reamde/1026287/7 "2026-01-08T23:15:02Z")
I might give Cryptonomicon a go, as the codebreaking sounds interesting. Mind you, I’m looking at my current ‘to read’ pile which has grown considerably since Christmas and thinking I have enough to keep going until Easter. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neal-stephenson-recommendations-for-next-book-after-reamde/1026287/8 "2026-01-08T23:19:54Z")
Preach it! My que of un-played video games and un-read books grows every year around this time. Not that I’m _complaining_ mind you… ---
**Author:** ![Tride](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tride/32/13907_2.png) [@Tride](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tride)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2026, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neal-stephenson-recommendations-for-next-book-after-reamde/1026287/9 "2026-01-09T13:56:32Z")
Cryptonomicon is one of my favorite books. Don’t get bogged down in the math. Fall has some GREAT ideas but is a tough read. It was once said that inside every Stephenson 900 page book is a 400 page book screaming to get out. ---
**Author:** ![cormac262](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@cormac262](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cormac262)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2026, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neal-stephenson-recommendations-for-next-book-after-reamde/1026287/10 "2026-01-12T21:13:57Z")
I was recommended Stephenson by a guy I met in a bookstore. Without knowing what else to pick, I randomly grabbed a copy of **Seveneves**. There were parts that I liked (reasonable science, scenario), and some parts that I didn’t (seemingly gratuitous sex…like thrown in to help sell movie rights ?). But I was particularly disappointed with the ending, which seemed “tacked on”, and kind of Spielberg-like. Fast forward a couple years and a friend of mine goes to a book signing by Stephenson for his latest book **Polostan**. Someone in the audience asked him about **Seveneves**. Stephenson explained that he had intended the story to be a trilogy. But his editors convinced him that he shouldn’t…so he just tacked on the ending to wrap it up as a single novel. So this helps explained the kind of abrupt time-jump ending. I can only speak to the one book, but I would not recommend **Seveneves**. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2026, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neal-stephenson-recommendations-for-next-book-after-reamde/1026287/11 "2026-01-12T21:24:51Z")
> [@cormac262](#): > > Someone in the audience asked him about **Seveneves**. Stephenson explained that he had intended the story to be a trilogy. But his editors convinced him that he shouldn’t…so he just tacked on the ending to wrap it up as a single novel. Here’s what be said about it before it was published: > The basic elements of the world were fixed a long time ago, and for at least eight years I have been roving around pitching it to various people in various media: television, movies, games, and various “transmedia” combinations. In the autumn of 2013, however I decided to just sit down and write it as a novel: the one thing I know I can get done. Because it was a mature concept already, this went quickly and I was able to deliver it to Jen Brehl at HarperCollins about a year later. The only part that gave me any trouble was calibrating an ending that would leave the reader satisfied that the story had concluded while leaving the impression of an open-ended world. > **[Neal Stephenson - Seveneves](https://www.nealstephenson.com/seveneves.html)** > > The personal website of author Neal Stephenson, unless it's been hacked. Sounds like he has a memory like George Lucas. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2026, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neal-stephenson-recommendations-for-next-book-after-reamde/1026287/12 "2026-01-12T21:30:00Z")
(I see the SDMB’s thread on _Seveneves_ happened a year before I got here, so I didn’t get to share my fresh hate like with _Dodge_.) > [@Sevenneves by Neal Stephenson](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sevenneves-by-neal-stephenson/718141/): > > Didn’t see anything on this upcoming book. Has anyone else read the preview? Synopsis: some mysterious for destroys the moon. Humanity must send out colonizers to save the race. Last two thirds of book skips forward 5000 years and we see the three distinct species that have descended from us as they plan to return to Earth. I expect lots of monologues on dense technical subjects and possibly an enigmatic wanderer named Enoch. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2026, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neal-stephenson-recommendations-for-next-book-after-reamde/1026287/13 "2026-01-12T21:34:32Z")
> [@cormac262](#): > > so he just tacked on the ending to wrap it up as a single novel I just assumed it was typical Stephenson ending difficulty, and kind of didn’t worry that it _completely did_ feel like two more novels were compressed into the last two chapters, or whatever. I for one would have liked the story about the survival of the moon base, mine, and walrus people and then the next book about bombarding the earth with comets and teraforming it.