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'Quicksilver' Website and Release Date
EvilBastard writes "Neil Stephenson's next book in the Baroque Cycle, Quicksilver, now has a publishing date of the 23rd of September, 2003. This book appears to follow the Shaftoe, Waterhouse and Root family line back to the early 18th Century. You can find a short extract online."
Neal Stephenson, At least according to the linked website :)
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Yup, y'ar. Maybe a little. Stevenson wrote Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash, and In The Beginning Was The Command Line, and others. All highly recommended.
He wrote:
Snow Crash
Diamond Age
Crytptonomicon
In the Beginning was the Command Line
Zodiac plus two more books under a pen name.
Great author of a few geek clasics, with great insight into modern issues.
Reality is that which refuses to go away when I stop believing in it. --Phillip K. Dick (remove SPAM to email)
Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
Signal to Noise by Eric S. Nylund
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow
I hadn't heard of him until I picked up Cryptonomicon on a whim. (Borders was running it for 20% off once upon a time) I got it for a trip I took with my girlfriend to California, and I was laughing out loud so much she complained repeatedly. The fact that we were sitting in seats next to the plane's engine at the time should be noted here to give you an idea of just how loud I was laughing. Of his books that I've read, I think Cryptonomicon was his best, followed by Snow Crash, The Diamond Age and Zodiac. They're all worth checking out, and probably owning. They're exceptionally geek-friendly.
Dare to Hope. Prepare to be Disappointed.
This is the first book in the timeline. Cryptonomicon is related (as are the characteres therein) but comes after Quicksilver time wise. So this is the prequel to Cryptonomicon basically.
If this thing is half as good as Cryptonomicon, it will be worth reading IMHO...
IMHO one of the few authors bothering (or able) to extrapolate cutting edge technology and concepts.
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Together, we will drive the rats from the tundra.
yes, it's called _A Signal Shattered_, and it was jus as good if not better. wish he'd do another..
In case you're interested, I've also got a page up of Neal Stephenson's short work, fiction and non-fiction.
BTW, this book is the first book of three in Baroque Cycle, and they'll be released at six month intervals. So says HarperCollins.
fyi, he's speaking at the Usenix Technical Conference on June 12th as the keynote speaker. he's going to talk about this new book and some other things. luckily, i'll be there =)
Best examples of Gibson from best to, well, not best. He wrote more, but these are really his identifying works:
Neuromancer
Mona Lisa Overdrive
Count Zero
Burning Chrome
Also Zodiac, which was one of his earliest. Not quite as polished, as funny, and more irreverent than Snow Crash.
He seems to like dry humor, irony, mystical experiences, sex , and underdogs.
Not necessarily in that order.
Searching for Truth, Justice, and the Guy Who Boosted My Wallet a Few Weeks Back....
Neal's a pretty sharp guy but he outsources a lot of his research to proffesionals (makes sense) and has several staff people help him put the pieces together, as it were.
I offered my services as part of the FTEST (final tech editing service team) but Neal didn't want a computer pundit as much as he was looking for science pundits. Ah well, at least now I'm in his rolodex and hopefully I'll get more chances to work with him.
Warmest regards,
--Jack
Wagner LLC Consulting Co. - Getting it right the first time
The scene (in which Randy's older relatives determine who gets what family heirloom by taking each piece and laying it on a huge x-y / sentimental-monetary value axis) lets the reader know just how the nerdiness seen in L.P. Waterhouse (the grandfather, inventor of the computer) is 'genetically' carried down to Randy (hacker extraordinaire) via his older relatives (mathematicians and scientists, all).
But more importantly (if you want plot!), Randy figures out a way to cheat the system he designed and gets a trunk full of old encrypted cards from the war that ultimately allows him (Epiphyte's stockholders, really) to get the gold and the girl (Randy gets the girl, not the stockholders).
He addressed both of these issues several years ago. From the Contact Info section on his homepage:
If you want to tell me about typographical errors in Cryptonomicon, thank you, but don't bother. I am aware that the book has many typos. The publisher and I are trying to fix as many as we can in a subsequent printing.
And from his Crytonimicon FAQ:
12. Why does the perl script on p. 480 have funny-looking line breaks?
The printed novel is one of several distribution media for the Solitaire perl script, and probably the least important; after all, it does no good unless you sit down and type it into a computer, which is a real pain. If you have a computer, you can probably just download the perl from the Counterpane site. Nevertheless, it was my intention to make it possible to type in the script "by hand" from the book and have it work. When I tried this myself, it turned out that line breaks in the script introduced ambiguities that caused it not to work. Therefore, I reformatted the script so that each line in the printed version ends with a semicolon, wherever possible. This removes the ambiguities and makes it possible IN PRINCIPLE to type it correctly, even if you don't know perl. But the result looks funny if you are a perl aficionado.
13. Hey, the perl script doesn't work! What's the deal?
The production people at the publisher tried valiantly to get the perl script typeset without any errors, but one error did slip in. It is located on the eighth line. Where the book says
$o=~s/.chr((
and so on, it SHOULD say
$o=~s/./chr((
and so on.
I have notified the publisher and they are going to fix it in the next printing. But all of the books in the first printing will contain the error. Perhaps this will make them valuable collectors' items one day, but for now they are useless as perl scripts.
The possession of prejudices is not nearly as dangerous as the inability to abandon them.