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Neal Stephenson's The Confusion Released 254

Posted by michael from the use-potion-of-clarity-to-avoid-confusion dept.
Jon Lasser writes "Neal Stephenson's 'The Confusion', second volume of his Baroque Cycle is released today. I received an advance copy and have a book review up here. The hypertext site for the trilogy is here. The short review: if you liked 'Quicksilver', this one is better; if you didn't, don't bother."
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Neal Stephenson's The Confusion Released More

Neal Stephenson's The Confusion Released

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  • Confusion (Score:4, Funny)

    by Chuck Bucket ( 142633 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @01:29PM (#8850174) Homepage Journal
    I'm confused, usually there's some long review of a book, followed by the FP! and GNAA posts, along with the 'cheaper at Amazon' links. This thread is different, at least for the time being.

    CVsb

  • Cryptonomicon, Quicksilver (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dmh20002 ( 637819 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @01:30PM (#8850188)
    I loved Cryptonomicon. It was a page turner all the way through. I got bored with Quicksilver half way thru. I liked the parts that involved Newton and other real scientists, but when the fictional characters went off on their own it got complicated and boring. I never finished it.

    thats probably just me.
    • Funny, I was just the opposite. I slugged my way through Crypto, but found Quicksilver to be an easier read.

    • Re:Cryptonomicon, Quicksilver (Score:5, Interesting)

      by borud ( 127730 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @01:47PM (#8850405) Homepage
      I've read about 540 pages of Quicksilver now and I have to agree that for the first 300 pages it was a pretty slow read for the most part. The parts with Newton and Waterhouse were very entertaining, but when Stephenson goes off putting things in a bigger historic perspective (or whatever he tries to do), things get a bit boring.

      Almost all of book two, where Shaftoe makes an entry, is really good so far. I like Stephenson's way of telling a story. He is good at describing the dynamics of inter-personal relationships and he uses a geeky sort of language that is really funny.

      When there's a story to be told, Neal Stephenson is a great writer, when not, you just want to kick him real hard. (Still he is not as bad as le'Carre, who has a nasty habit of drowning good plots in the kind of drawn out, mediocre, masturbatory adjective-slinging, twaddle that my teachers were so fond of.

      Still, Quicksilver was seems worth reading now that I'm a bit over half way through, and I have already ordered "The Confusion".

      I just hope that the Baroque Cycle has an ending so, like "The young lady's primer", it doesn't just come to a screeching halt like a bad B-movie run out of money.

      • Neal's books don't end. They accelerate. Allow me to explain. Snowcrash, The Diamond Age, and Cryptonomicon all begin with very detailed explainations of the technology that the plot hinges on. Stephenson is actually pretty good at making this interesting, and he puts plenty of plot in while he does it.

        Once the tech is explained the story starts to move faster. It is as if the story is passing through Stephenson's mind faster and he isn't able to type fast enough to keep up. So as it accelerates the details that make it to the page are more and more sparse until there are no details or explainations left. That is when the book is over, since there is nothing to print on the next page as the pace of the book approaches infinity and he simply can type anything.

        Quicksilver seems to break the mold. It doesn't get faster and in fact just gets harder and harder to read. The pace at which I could read it got slower and slower until I was unable to read any more of it. I stopped (well, the velocity of my reading reached zero) about 300 pages from the end. This from a person that read Cryptonomicon in two sittings.

      • kind of drawn out, mediocre, masturbatory adjective-slinging, twaddle that my teachers were so fond of.

        Please tell me you're being ironical here...
      • These books are for people who like to read, who are amused by the English language and what Americans have done to it, and who find Stephenson to be a fount of wit. All of his books to date have been like this (with the possible exception of those written under a pen name, they were a little different) so it really shouldn't surprise anyone.

        Also, the point I originally wanted to make is that it helps if you read quickly. They put me (and a couple of the other GATE students) in front of a speed reading ma

    • Re:Cryptonomicon, Quicksilver (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Strange Ranger ( 454494 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @01:57PM (#8850522)
      Cryptonomicon was kind of destined to become a hit. An outstanding writer who is a geek's geek geeking out on top geeky topics.

      The Baroque Cycle seems more like Neal exploring his own niche interests. Alchemy, the history of modern banking, etc. Makes think Neal might have been poking fun at himself with his choice of The Baroque [m-w.com] Cycle as the trilogy title.

      Anyway, though not as immediately accessable as Cryptonomicon, it is a fascinating pleasure to experience a writer of Mr. Stephenson's caliber and style work through his own exploration of things that are:
      marked generally by use of complex forms, bold ornamentation, and the juxtaposition of contrasting elements often conveying a sense of drama, movement, and tension 2 : characterized by grotesqueness, extravagance, complexity, or flamboyance
      Go Neal. And thanks again!
      • Cryptonomicon was kind of destined to become a hit. An outstanding writer who is a geek's geek geeking out on top geeky topics.

        It was destined to become a hit among twenty-something geeks who live in Silicon Valley and have no life outside of their job. As a twenty-something geek living in Austin with a rich life, I found it to be agonizingly badly written.

        You don't need to explain linux, or PGP, to a geek. You certainly don't need to put thirty pages of exposition about linux where thirty pages of sto

        • Re:Cryptonomicon, Quicksilver (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Strange Ranger ( 454494 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @02:29PM (#8850962)
          Each to their own I guess. I like him partly because of the stuff you don't like. Things I know he relates in a humorous way, things I don't (bletchley park, etc etc) he makes fascinating. He bridges gaps for many who aren't the "digerati" that we profess to be. But the best part is none of that, nor the endings, nor the ideas, but the angle from which he explores those ideas, his turn of phrase, etc. Hmmmm... maybe his sense of humor is the key. He makes digging a mine shaft fun and interesting. I thing he could write a Star Office training manual that would make learning it a total hoot. And it would still be greatly enjoyed by those who know Star Office well. YMMV obviously.
          • I agree. Besides, how many writers can spend entire pages on a mathematical analysis of the productivity vs. frequency of sex graphs--both the manual override and the one-on-one variety--and still show their face at the book signing?
        • >It was destined to become a hit among twenty-something geeks who live in Silicon Valley and have no life outside of their job.

          Considering how many people bought this book, your argument about who it appeals to holds as little water as your arguements about the writing. Sorry you didn't enjoy it; Clearly it was NOT written for 20-something geeks or he wouldn't have put in the exposition you found so painful. I don't know shit about Linux and found the whole book to be a fascinating techno-thriller on on

    • Re:Cryptonomicon, Quicksilver (Score:4, Informative)

      by ehiris ( 214677 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @02:06PM (#8850652) Homepage
      Cryptonomicon was awesome. I was able to read it completely and I didn't have many problems understanding it.
      Quicksilver is awful considering I'm a non-native English speaker. I had to look up almost every other word. It is no fun reading it that way. I wasn't even able to finish the first chapter.
    • I was probably one of the few people that finished Quicksilver. It was slow, slow, slow and boring with some minor fun parts. Newton was fun, Shaftoe was fun, the rest was a pain to read. It went everywhere and nowhere. I still don't feel it moving anywhere. After 900 pages I demand to get at least something from a book, besides tired biceps (that thing is heavy). He needs and editor. He couldn't have condensed all that crap into 300 pages of pretty good stuff. Should I even bother reading Confusion? The r

  • Stephen King usurped! (Score:2, Interesting)

    by emtechs ( 770821 )
    Anyone know if he actually wrote the three books in under a year? After Robert Jordan I've tried to avoid starting series that may never end...

    Maybe it was a Kill Bill style 'why not make them buy it three times?' marketing move.

    • Re:Stephen King usurped! (Score:4, Interesting)

      by disappear ( 21915 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @01:35PM (#8850255) Homepage
      It took him five years to write three books --- well, that's the time since Cryptonomicon was released. So, even with a year for book touring and preliminaries, it was four years. The reason that the trilogy is being published as three separate books rather than one long one: page counts. The first volume is 900 pages, the second is 800, and the third is somewhere about the same length, I've heard.
    • In a word: No. He took 4 or 5 years to write them and was slowed by the fact that he wrote them entirely with a fountain pen (No, Really).
    • "After Robert Jordan I've tried to avoid starting series that may never end..."

      Amen to that. I once was quoted as saying Robert Jordan was the best modern fantasy writer in my humble opinion, but I have to say that the last installment of the Wheel of Time series was the first 500+ page book I'd read in which absolutely nothing happened. After I got done with it, I had to acknowledge that there was no plot continuance in the entire book. Everyone stayed where they were doing what they'd been doing in th

  • Opportunity for profit (Score:5, Funny)

    by product byproduct ( 628318 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @01:35PM (#8850244)
    Easy way to make cash if you're Cowboy Neal:

    - Write a book titled "Stephenson".
    - The book cover should say in big letters:

    Cowboy
    Neal
    Stephenson

    - Cash in on people who think this is "Cowboy" from Neal Stephenson.

  • book reviews, not links to book reviews (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sdedeo ( 683762 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @01:42PM (#8850348) Homepage Journal
    I thought the tradition for book reviews was for slashdot contributors to post their own, here. It would be disappointing if we forewent this to just post a link to somewhere else.

    Slashdot has a lot of interesting readers who, because they aren't tied up in the mostly non-functional reviewing world, can contribute interesting takes on whatever's come out. Online and off, most of the book reviews are either LCD "here is a book about stuff neither of us understand", or unmitigated love-ins where authors review each other in a mutual backscratch.

    I would hate to see people stop writing reviews for first post on slashdot, and I would hate to see slashdot stop supporting its own review culture.

  • trilogy and endings (Score:5, Funny)

    by svallarian ( 43156 ) <svallarianNO@SPAMhotmail.com> on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @01:44PM (#8850371)
    Well, i guess since it's a trilogy, this will actually give stephenson an excuse for a book to not have an ending.

    Steven V.

    • This is what killed "The Diamond Age" for me. Great book, very interesting characters, awesome speculative technology and settings...

      Then, it suddenly ended, and left me scratching my head totally. I actually checked to make sure I wasn't missing another chapter or something...

      Then I was totally embarrased, because I had already recommended the book to several friends. I was hoping they'd forget I mentioned it.

      Not that that kept me from getting Cryptonomicon. I work at a security company, I think I p

  • I like Stephenson, BUT (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @01:45PM (#8850379)
    The boy is in need of a good editor. His 1000 page books are more like 500 page books with lots of flab.

    And the endings... they're usually so awful that I can almost feel the author cringing as he types. Its like he runs out of steam and then can't figure out an ending, so he says "oh, the diesel fuel burns and melts the gold". Its a total surrender to laziness.

    Maybe if he cut out the description of dive tables he could muster up the energy for a good ending.
    • Exactly. Maybe this is what killed me on Neal's books. There was no such problem in Snowcrash. It was fun and exciting all the way through.

      Granted, Snowcrash was not a groundbreaking work like Dune, but it was fun and exciting diversion. It was entertainment. Not bad! It's worth 7 bucks or whatever the soft cover costs.

      On the other hand, there is too much crap in his other books and way too much mundane trivialities and silly descriptions of irrelevant things.

  • The problem with Stephenson is male-female dialog (Score:5, Funny)

    by Nakito ( 702386 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @01:47PM (#8850393)
    Stephenson makes great use of speculative history. He postulates some great "what if" scenarios arising from past events and uses them to weave an alternative present. He always succeeds in grabbing my attention. And then -- and then his male protagonist tries to talk to a woman. And that is where his novels fall apart. His dialog does not ring true. Every conversation sounds contrived. I think it's supposed to be banter, but it's just stilted. Is it any wonder he chose the name "Eliza" for the female protagonist in Quicksilver?

  • Suprised.... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by VeeCee ( 693453 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @01:48PM (#8850430)
    That more people didn't like Quicksilver. I thought it was excellent and am really looking forward to reading the Confusion. Since I don't know much about European history, the history itself made the book very interesting.

  • Confusion ? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Jesrad ( 716567 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @01:50PM (#8850454) Journal
    The Confusion is out ? Well, then, Hail Eris ! Or something...

  • Intro to Neal (Score:5, Interesting)

    by The-Dalai-LLama ( 755919 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @01:51PM (#8850460) Homepage Journal

    I've seen a number of posters commenting on the weightiness of Cryptonomicon and Quicksilver (which I have yet to read).

    If you are not familiar with Stephenson and want a brief introduction, I recommend Zodiac. It's a quick, entertaining page-turner that can be read in one sitting but still gives you a pretty good feel for his writing.

    Sort of like Neal Stephenson Lite

    The Dalai Llama
    ... absolutely loved Interface and didn't find out Stephenson wrote it until a month ago on /. ...

    • I recommend Zodiac.

      Zodiac (subtitled The Ecothriller) is still my favorite Stephenson, suitable for numerous rereadings. It's fun, downright silly, at times, and has a loveably obnoxious main character.

      ObTopic: I liked Quicksilver a lot, too, and I should have The Confusion on Thursday. Very Pynchonesque (in the Mason & Dixon sense).

    • Save Zodiac for last. That way, after flogging yourself through his increasingly turgid prose, increasingly leaden dialog, and increasing immunity to proper editing, you can enjoy the treat of a Neal Stephenson novel with a tight plot, believable characters (well, by comparison) and an actual ending.

  • Visit Neal Stephenson on the web at: (Score:4, Informative)

    by trickofperspective ( 180714 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @01:53PM (#8850485) Homepage
    A somewhat more focused website [nealstephenson.com] than the link provided above (which essentially just recreates the wikipedia with references to the events of Stephenson's books).
    • I just wanted to clear up one point about the Metaweb [metaweb.com] (the site linked to in the article).

      I'm one of the Metaweb administrators; I am also a Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] administrator. The two sites run the same software - Mediawiki - but have different goals.

      For a summary of the differences, see the Metaweb vs Wikipedia FAQ [metaweb.com]

      The Metaweb currently has extensive annotations on Quicksilver, many written by Neal, but also many contributed by readers. I hope that any Slashdot readers who are interested in The Confusion and wo

  • Cryptonomicon, Quicksilver, & the downward spi (Score:5, Insightful)

    by drdread ( 770953 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @01:58PM (#8850538)
    Snowcrash, IMO, was one of the great works of our time. The same can not be said of Cryptonomicon or Quicksilver. Cryptonomicon suffered from endless diversions from the story, and the end was like the end of Monty Python & the Holy Grail or Matrix: Revolutions or so many other stories where the author did not have a start-to-finish vision of how the story would unfold. That is, the story just ended, with little meat or satisfaction for the reader.

    Quicksilver, honestly, was a burden to read. The story had its moments, but when you're 700 pages into a book and have little or no idea where it's going and little or no motivation to keep reading, I submit that the author has basically failed. I frequently felt like the author was writing just to "hear himself type." I'll probably read The Confusion just because I hate to leave thing unfinished, but if it's similarly burdensome, I think I'll just have to give up on Stephenson altogether.

    To the commenter who asked why Stephenson features gay characters and their homosexuality so prominently, all I can tell you is that Turing was, in fact, gay, and it was a major issue for him and for the people who worked around him. It's not surprising to me that any story on cryptography would feature Turing and his homosexuality. I can't say as much about Newton simply because I'm only familiar with the history of his work rather than the history of the man.

    Who ever said Stephenson needs an editor is right on. Quicksilver is a 300 or 400 page story told in 900 pages. Keeping the length down would do a great service towards making the thing more interesting and readable. But somehow I suspect that neither of these issues are high on Stephenson's list. :(

    • Re:Cryptonomicon, Quicksilver, & the downward (Score:5, Funny)

      by TwistedGreen ( 80055 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @02:09PM (#8850688)
      I frequently felt like the author was writing just to "hear himself type."

      Actually, Quicksilver was written with a pen and paper.

      Maybe it's an ink company conspiracy.
    • Completely agree. Snowcrash was brilliant. Hilarious, scary, insightful, new, fresh, amazing. Cryptonomicon was good, but not as good (what's with Enoch Root - he Stephenson's Ellsworth Toohey?) and Quicksilver is just a complete yawn. I'm at about p 250 and had to divert to Dan Brown before I passed out with boredom. It does show some flashes of Stephenson's brilliance, but only rarely. I'm praying it gets better, if it doesn't pick up I'm gonna have to bail on the whole series.

    • Re:Cryptonomicon, Quicksilver, & the downward (Score:4, Insightful)

      by sketi ( 764664 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @02:26PM (#8850926)
      Snow Crash was a damn fine book, but as far as I'm concerned, Cryptonomicon is hands down Stephenson's best. 've never understood the complaints about Stephenson's endings, though. When the story's over, the book ends. That's the way it should be. I hate spending the last 50 pages of a book building up to some "satisfying" conclusion where everything gets tied up neatly into a perfect little Hollywood package.

      As for the length, if an editor had cut 300 pages from Cryptonomicon, it would have completely castrated the story. Quicksilver's about twice as long as it needs to be, but if forcing myself through 900 pages of Quicksilver is the price I have to pay for an intact Cryptonomicon, then so be it.
    • I think the big problem with Quicksilver is that it's the first bookm in a big trilogy, not a standalone book in it's own right - reading it I assumed it was setting me up with all the information I'll need to read the next two .... problem is that won't be for a while and by then I'll have forgotten a lot.

      I think that for a work that large you really do need to work on making the story more satisfying at the points along the way too

    • Re:Cryptonomicon, Quicksilver, & the downward (Score:4, Interesting)

      by cbiffle ( 211614 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @03:12PM (#8851422)
      One of the things Newton prided himself on was his virginity. Despite being married, he claimed to be a virgin up until his death.

      I can see a few options for this.
      1. Being the ubergeek of his time, he simply couldn't get laid.
      2. He was lying.
      3. He was confused as to what 'virgin' meant.
      4. He was gay.

      Now, I should mention that, for #4 to hold true, he'd either have had to not act on his impulses, or to have defined sex as being between a man and a woman. I think the latter's probably quite likely.

      So depicting Newton as gay, while potentially controversial, isn't entirely improbable.
      • One of the things Newton prided himself on was his virginity. Despite being married, he claimed to be a virgin up until his death. I can see a few options for this. 1. Being the ubergeek of his time, he simply couldn't get laid. 2. He was lying. 3. He was confused as to what 'virgin' meant. 4. He was gay. Now, I should mention that, for #4 to hold true, he'd either have had to not act on his impulses, or to have defined sex as being between a man and a woman. I think the latter's probably quite likely. S

  • Just don't read Snowcrash (Score:4, Insightful)

    by aeoo ( 568706 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @02:12PM (#8850728) Journal
    I read Snowcrash as my first Neal Stephenson book. So I expected all his books to be like that. Wrong! Snowcrash is good but I hate everything else he writes. It is mind bogglingly boring and I don't think he has any insight whatsoever into relationships.

    Why do people like stuff like Cryptonomicon? I've read a hundred pages or so and I just couldn't take it. What's so exciting about Shaftoe? Who cares about riding on a ship? War? There is no action, no insight, no perspective, no intrigue, nothing. I mean, it's like pages and pages of nothing and nothing and nothing. Nothing happens. Characters are boring, average, shallow and do not do anything interesting. I mean, why don't I just put a web cam on a bus stop? Because it would be about as insightful and as exciting as any of Stephenson's books. I don't understand.

    What is exciting about these books? Is there some depth that I don't see? It's no Dune, that's for sure. Stephenson has no spiritual insight. So what is it?

    Even reading highly modded up posts here just blows me away!! Some guy read 300 pages that he thought were mediocre in order to get to the good parts!?!? You guys are crazy? Are you sure you're not reading the book because "Neal is cool" in the nerd culture? How can anyone stomach 300 pages of mundane mediocrity to get to the "good parts" later? I don't understand. I mean, even Neal's fans think he sucks. It's in plain sight here on Slashdot.

    I don't get it. :)

    • Re:Just don't read Snowcrash (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Scrameustache ( 459504 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @02:30PM (#8850976) Homepage Journal
      I've read a hundred pages or so (...) What's so exciting about Shaftoe?

      2 words: Giant Lizard.

      I don't get it.

      I know ;-)
      • I'm with you, I think Bobby Shaftoe is one of the greatest characters ever created, and despite the Waterhouse sections being fascinating, the Shaftoe portions of Cryptonomicon are my favorite.

        Hell, I'm halfway through my second go on the book.

    • >
      > Why do people like stuff like Cryptonomicon? I've read a hundred pages or so and I just couldn't take it.
      >
      Because he gets so much of it *right*, and he "wastes" all that on the background. Research that some writers would do for a non-fiction book or article, Stephenson just hoses around his novels for effect, for atmosphere, and for authenticity. It's the sheer profligacy that brings such a stupid grin to my face.
      I read _Cryptonomicon_ when it came out, and I liked it...but I wondered a

  • Ho hum. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Meoward ( 665631 )

    I'll have to chime in as well, since I just finished Quicksilver myself.

    Christ, what a tedious read. It was one of the worst Xmas presents I ever received. (Yeah, it took me this long to slog through it.)

    I got the feeling throughout the whole book that Stephenson was writing to impress himself. The interesting moments and plot points were drowned out by relentless pedantry. (Quick, raise your hand if you finished the book, and you really wanted to get Daniel Waterhouse off that damned ship for the first

  • The great thing about abridged books is that it really forces a long-winded author to get off his cliche and tell the story. So, with a 900 page book, you can cut it down to a "reasonable" 8 hours of tape.
    Long-winded tomes are about the only time I recommend abridgements, though. While it is possible to cut a 300 page novel down to a 3 hour cassette, IMHO there usually isn't enough left to trouble yourself with. And just as a point of reference, I have greatly enjoyed most of Stephenson's work, but the
  • This brick was such a tiresome chore that I don't see how many people will follow this tedium through to its unfortunate conclusion.

    Neal, fire your editor.

  • Ok, so now all the rambling, inconsistency, and bloatware feel makes sense..

    - excerpt from an Amazon.com interview with Neal Stephenson available here. [amazon.com]

    "for instance, there might be one person who gets the job of looking after EMACS"

    Neal, Neal, Neal.. vi buddy, trust us.

    0h

  • Metaweb (Score:5, Informative)

    by Bullet-Dodger ( 630107 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @03:16PM (#8851463)
    Didn't see it mentioned so, The Metaweb [metaweb.com] is Stephenson's wiki about Quicksilver (presumably information on the rest of the trilogy will be added). It's very interesting, has all kinds of information on the people and ideas in the book. Especially the annotations [metaweb.com], add a lot of interesting background and details.

  • Information (Score:3, Insightful)

    by DrJAKing ( 94556 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @05:52PM (#8853518)
    There's a common thread running through all Stephenson's books, a fascination with the history of information and how processing it has affected the development of human society and culture, from prehistory to the imaginable future. This is why he appeals so much to many geeks. Since Snowcrash, his breakthrough novel, he's been piecing together a remarkable perpective on the very essence of what makes humans special. The extent to which it is sometimes hard going just reflects what a difficult task it is, but the exploration is far-reaching and important. To those who couldn't hack Quicksilver, I say keep at it and instead of thinking of it as an entertainment, use it as a bunch of bookmarks to stuff that you should really know about.

  • Specific Quicksilver flaws (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Minna Kirai ( 624281 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @05:58PM (#8853592)
    Several posters have pointed out some valid flaws in Quicksilver, which overall is not as good as Cryptonomicon. I'll just mention a few specific problems (particularly in comparison to Cryptonom) that haven't been discussed. All of these are more minor complaints than normally deserve mention in a book review:
    • It's part of a series now. A book (or film) in a longer series is weaker in general than a standalone work. The effect is similar to how TV episodes are weaker than movies, because the obligatory continuity between installments weakens the author's freedom for each (He can't convincingly put the hero in danger in volume 2, when part 3 is still coming up).

      Most importantly, the Enoch Root character introduced in Cryptonomicon is now the unifying factor of the Baroque Cycle. Whereas in just one book he could be accepted as a spooky, mysterious character, giving him a blatantly immortal lifespan moves the book more towards fantasy and away from semi-educational speculative history. (The fantastical parts of Crytponomicon, like the vowel-free isle of Qwflgm and the invention of the digital computer in Austrailia, were some of its weaknesses)
    • Written with pen. To "get the feel for the period technology", Quicksilver was written by hand instead of on computer. This has contributed to a less coherent and balanced flow than the predecessor book. I won't go into detail on the many small ways this has harmed the book... I'd need to annotate the text to fully explain.
    • Non-preemptive multitasking. Both Crytponom and QuickSilv contain 3 distinct storylines that become increasingly more related as the plot progresses. In both books, those storylines are "Waterhouse present", "Waterhouse past", and "Shaftoe past". But Cryptonom progressed through each line concurrently, with 5-20 pages of one plot followed by a switch to another, while QuickSilv can go for 300 pages following a single thread. That makes the book much less coherent, and creates a great discontinuity whenever the jump occurs.
    • Self-plagiarizing. That accusation is an exaggeration, I know. But still, both books concern the immortal Enoch Root's explorations into the secrets of national gold reserves, told from 3 threads of activity: Waterhouse the reserved mathematician, Shaftoe the iterinant warrior, and Waterhouse 50-years later (picking up the pieces).

      Retelling the same story in a different era is a sign that an author is out of good ideas. (But hey, Ken Follett retells [amazon.com] the same [amazon.com] story [amazon.com] on the exact same date, and readers keep buying it)
    • Less detailed. Compared to Cryptonom, QuickSilv spends much less verbiage providing background information on the people and places visited. And since QuickSilv is set further back in time, historical detail is even more important. Most readers were passingly familiar with 1999 Seattle, and understand the overall flow of the Second World War. But going back centuries instead of decades, typical readers will have much less idea about what to expect, and so digressive introductions (something that Stephenson apparently enjoys) would've been more helpful to them.

      But unfortunately, the two protagonists (Waterhouse and Shaftoe) are both willfully disconnected from the mainstream of society, and no supporting characters pop up to expound on backdrop factoids.
    • Genetic model of aptitude. A really minor point, but it's unimpressive to see characters from the same families pl

  • I can't wait to read The Confusion (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Admiral1973 ( 623214 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @06:01PM (#8853632) Homepage
    I've devoured and loved all of Stephenson's books. Reading Cryptonomicon was the highlight of the summer of 2000 for me, and Quicksilver kept me entertained throughout the autumn of 2003. I read The Diamond Age on vacation in 2002, and anytime I think of that trip, I think of the book.

    Many posters here have complained about Stephenson's prose: too much detail, not enough character development, and so on. I disagree with all of them. With Stephenson, you get scientific, historical, and technical knowledge along with characters that will grow on you if you let them. I think that by spending so many pages on information, he gives the characters a foundation in their environment. They have a depth that they would lack without the benefit of their surroundings, which are best explained the way he does it.

    Another thing I love about his books, but especially Quicksilver, is the mixture of fictional characters and real people. The political intrigue of England in the 1680s was fascinating to me, as I'm a big fan of English history. I knew little about the people of that era before I read the book, but now I've sought out other materials on the time period and I'm looking forward to learning more. I've been to London several times, and I enjoyed picturing the city as it looked 320 years ago.

    I do agree with those who say that his recent books have been too long, but not with their reasons. I take the subway to work, and I like to read to pass the time. Lugging Quicksilver back and forth to work for two months wasn't much fun. If he'd published the trilogy as a series of 300-page books instead, I'd be happier. But I'll gladly put up with the extra weight to enjoy Stephenson's writings again. You can only read a book for the first time once.

  • Released TODAY? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Stormie ( 708 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @07:14PM (#8854559) Homepage
    I saw it in a bookshop several days ago.. and I'm in Sydney, Australia. I still haven't finished reading Quicksilver though, so I didn't buy it..

  • Why Neal Stephenson counts (Score:3, Insightful)

    by bluetrident ( 665406 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @09:11PM (#8855660)
    I've mentioned this offhandedly before, but the reason I think that Neal Stephenson is amazing is because of what he is currently doing. He's gone from a 'eco-terrorist' to a cyberpunk writer. Then he took it a step further and became a New York Times Bestselling Author writing straight fiction.

    He's made a transition from scifi to fiction, but carried the tech along with it. 50 years from now, there's only going to be a few authors from this genre (scifi) that will still be read, and I believe that Stephenson will be one of those. He can tell a story, when he gets down to it. Why do people still read Phillip K. Dick? Why are there now movies being made from his stories? Because he can tell a story, in the end. Why is Stephenson still being posted here? Because his stories are good. He might get a bit bogged down in the details, but he's a great storyteller and that's why I'll start 'The Confusion' tomorrow and I can't wait for the 3rd part of trilogy. He's had some time to develop his skill, I'm guessing that the entire trilogy and 'Cryptonomicon' taken as a whole, will tell an entirely diffent story, taken altogether.

    Just my thoughts...

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