Just to remind everyone who has forgotten The Big U, that was the one that was based on the idea that *The Origin of Consciousness and the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind *was a real thing and not ridiculous pseudo-science, set in a big Northeastern university during a breakdown of society, with the techies trying to build a mass driver. It has a lot of the charms of Stephenson’s best, but it is clearly a journeyman effort.
I am surprised by all the hate for Diamond Age here. I haven’t read it in many years, but I loved it at the time.
The SDMB member Boozahal Squid, PI actually sent me a copy because we were both Stephenson fans and I hadn’t read it, and it was his favorite.
I just thought it went on and on and on. It was too fantastical for me. I had *Cryptonomicon *and The Baroque Cycle and *Snowcrash *by this point. It just didn’t seem the same.
Anyway, there are other Dopers who give Diamond Age an A++!
My ordering:
Tied: Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon (two of my favorite books, difficult to rank)
3. Baroque Cycle
4. Reamde
5. Zodiac (which I don’t remember, but I remember liking)
6. Anathem (just took too long to get going for me)
…
…
…
Last: The Diamond Age
I don’t think I read Cobweb or Interface, but if I did, I’d probably rate them with Zodiac. I really did not like The Diamond Age.
He’s one of my favorite authors, and I’m sure I’ll get to his new one.
I guess we’re doing rankings, huh. Here’s mine:
- Cryptonomicon (probably my favorite book period)
- Anathem
- Snow Crash
- Zodiac
- Diamond Age
- Quicksilver (I got through it, but didn’t like it enough to finish the Baroque Cycle)
- Big U
- Reamde (A fun ride, but felt too light compared to, well, any of his other books).
There’s a pretty big gap between 5 and 6.
It might be worth it to try at least the first bit of The Confusion. As I recall it has a much faster pace, and starts with some action almost right off the bat. I also found Quicksilver to be pretty slow going, but I enjoyed the rest of the series much more.
Just started Sevenneves last night, and I’m finding it interesting and engaging in a very Stephensoneque way. I still haven’t encountered a hero/protagonist-type character I can really connect with yet though.
I agree. If you can imagine setting up one of those massive domino drop things, *Quicksilver *is the tedious part where you spend hours lining up all the dominos just right. The Confusion is the fun part where the dominos start to drop and make lots of cool patterns. System of the World, all the dominos catch on fire.
Seveneves: I’m reading that now, about 2/3rds of the way through. I’m enjoying it much more than Reamde, for example.
eta:I wrote “domino” too many times. Looks weird.
I gained a new appreciation for it when I learned SE Asia history at the turn of the century. The book is basically “what if the Boxers were about Alan Turing ?”, which is… weird, OK. But cool.
I’m strange in that I DON’T put The Big U at the bottom of the list. Near the bottom, sure, but not at the bottom. This may be because I actually bought my copy when it first came out, and still have it (even got Neal to sign it for me).
I just finished Seveneves about an hour ago. Really enjoyed it. Interesting the ways Humanity finds to survive. The ending felt (as is typical with Neal) kind of rushed.
So, as for ranking
Cryptonomicon
Snow Crash
Zodiac
Seveneves
The Diamond Age
Anathem
Baroque Cycle
The Big U
Reamde
I just finished Seveneves, and I really enjoyed it. But… I thought a lot of plot twists and decisions were fairly implausible:
-Julia manipulated her way into power way too quickly, particularly given that when she showed up she had saved herself in clear contradiction of a very important agreement
-Aida’s attack also seemed pretty ridiculous. Yes, there’s a strong taboo against cannibalism. But reasonable people understand that it is suspended in times of great emergency. Instead she starts a fatal shooting war between the only two groups of surviving humans in the universe (as far as she knows)? Oh, and then she and Julia, the two most recent chief villains, end up being the two sole survivors from their respective groups? And then they’re forgiven and welcomed back into society and get to be Eves?
-Purely from a time-management standpoint, it’s hard to see how 8 people could both do all the stuff necessary to survive, AND all be mothers, AND educate the next generation, etc. I’m not saying it’s impossible or anything, but it certainly felt glossed over. Also, why not allow the other surviving woman (Luisa?) to donate some genetic material, even if she couldn’t carry a pregnancy?
-It doesn’t make a ton of sense that the world governments would focus so much on the space program and ignore the dig-a-silo-underground plan (which obviously ended up working). It’s also a bit silly that the entire space plan had a massive and instantly obviously fatal flaw that only that private industry guy though of addressing.
-Most of all, it makes no sense that the seven races would remain so distinct that 5,000 years later the vast majority of humanity seem to be pureblooded members of one of them.
Still, a fun read full of interesting ideas.
Got it on Saturday and finished it today. On the first read, the only unresolved point for me was the mars mission. To me its kinda important, that it might have had the only surviving genetic index and might have been able to cut down the cut, paste and edit that they would have had to do.
Declan
hero/protagonist? I don’t think he’s in this one 
…and an utter disdain for anyone who isn’t a millionaire entreprenuer or a top-of-their field brilliant techie who helps said entrepreneur?
…I’ll still read anything he writes.
I guess we’re posting spoilers? Might be nice if a mod put a spoiler tag in the subject.
I agree; that was a pretty big loose end. I can’t see how it ended up in anything but disaster, but after the very first hints of contact, it made me wonder whether it was people returning from Mars (vs. people holed up on land vs. the ocean).
I haven’t fully convinced myself either way, but I think that the ocean makes more sense for the not-space contingency plan (as compared to land). The scientists should have been able to convince themselves that the trenches would be safe. Dropping stuff into a trench is relatively easy compared to launching it into space. Sea water is a tremendous resource: water, oxygen, and trace elements are all easily extracted. Iron can be hard to find at depth, but they could have simply dropped gigatonnes of iron next to the living modules. Deep under the ocean, it should last a very long time for a smallish community. Energy is the big problem, but nuclear reactor would work very well given the huge heatsinking capacity of water (as compared to space).
A mine isn’t going to have access to all of these resources. I wouldn’t trust an underground river to not dry up after stuff starts falling.
I’ve already lent my copy to a coworker. I’m curious about the Owners. Societas Eruditorium MkII?
Which opens up a whole other can of worms.
The nature of the Owners was what I was most disappointed not to know more about. I like your explanation and will just go with that. I wonder if one of the owners has red hair?
There was a real Societas Eruditorum.
Glad someone caught that.
I finished it the other day; I have to say it’s my least fave Stephenson novel. Waaaay too much technical explanation. There’s a reason I didn’t become a rocket scientist; I did NOT enjoy the science of orbital mechanics, ballistics, etc etc.
Oh well, I’ll still read his next one.
I’ve got a copy on my desk now. You know what’s really annoying? The quote from the New York Times on the bottom of the cover. It says, “He makes reading so much fun it feels like a deadly sin”
What are you? A twelve year old kid who hates reading? That’s the worst review quote ever.