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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."
In Snow Crash, The Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon there was a sense of something epic building all the way through that didn't really pay off. More of shame because he spins such an excellent yarn, and his writing is very engaging. But don't (please) pop the balloon just to bring the book to a conclusion.
I don't expect much in the way of correct spelling, good grammar, and typos here on slashdot, and I make plenty of these mistakes myself. But when I'm paying north of $20 for a hardback book, like Cryptonomicon, I really expect to see the work of a professional editor. This book was filled with typos and even spell-checker kinds of errors (e.g. cannon vs canon). Never mind the perl code in the book which lost all newlines. It appeared that the manuscript had just been run through a spell checker, then sent to the printer. Can we expect better for this go around?
Sorry, but in this crowd, Neal Stephenson is just as big, if not bigger, than Star Trek or The Matrix.
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
Things shouldn't have to be 'People Magazine' big before its safe to assume that thay can be mentioned on Slashdot w/ out a preamble. As far as current sci-fi or techie writers go, NS is huge. He may not be William Gibson, but he's certainly not obscure.
Given the tools available to you, there isn't really room to complain about not having heard of someone or something.
It is better to be silent, and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.
Three thoughts:
1. The "period-ness" of the novel may surpass the "geek-ness." This is a tad disappointing.
2. I'm rather indifferent to the genealogical links between these characters and Cryptonomicon's. I mean, the characters in Cryptonomicon were pretty good, but it's not as if they were so fabulously conceived that I said "Goddamn, I wish I could read an entire cycle of books about their ancestors!" But Stephenson obviously has affection for them, so whatever helps him write is okay by me.
3. I also suspect the idea of a "cycle" of books arose from his experience writing (and attempting to end) Cryptonomicon. I suppose it's easier to write an ending if it needn't be the ultimate ending. And also, if he found himself generating more than a thousand pages once again, it was probably better to partition them into several volumes and write as much as wanted, rather than form the immense tome that Cryptonomicon became and be forced to cut the story off somewhat abrupty.
What Would Jesus Do
(for a Klondike bar)?
I assumed that the fact that Enoch Root in Cryptonomicon would, logically, have been much older than he in fact was when meeting Randy Waterhouse was one of those "don't ask too many questions" situations...
Perhaps that hints at this interesting theory, too?
sig:- (wit >= sarcasm)
Stephenson has a great mind, no doubt. The mind is backed by a tremendous ego. This is important for a writer, otherwise they become too hash of a self critic and no book ever sees the press. However, and editor is usually the devil's advocate against the writer's ego, challenging and filtering concepts so what comes out the end doesn't seem like a long UseNet pos. I don't know who is doing Stephenson's editing, but they need to be a bit more foreceful with him: for one, cutting out more. How many pages were spent describing breakfast cereal in Cryptonomicon? This is up there with John Galt's forty page speech in Atlas Shrugged, in terms of Too Much. It's a difficult task, writing less, it is like writing really tight, optimized code. It's a skill that Stephenson, or his editors, need to acquire. Along with better proofreaders for spelling and grammar.
In spite of all this criticism, I do enjoy his works.
Yeah, he's pretty obscure:
Number of Linux users as of today (source: the Linux counter, http://counter.li.org/): 134107
Sales figures of Cryptonomicon, as of 3/19/01 (source Publisher's Weekly (http://publishersweekly.reviewsnews.com), sorry figures are so old, I don't have time to search for new ones):116,330
Yep. I agree. We ought to cover Star Trek and The Matrix, and not obscure stuff like Linux and Neal Stephenson. That stuff is for nerds!
The first time I read "Cryptonomicon", I was slightly put out by how long and drawn out many of the passages and descriptions were. So I ended up reading the whole thing but sort of skimming over some of what I thought was less important stuff.
Imagine my suprise when, two year later, I picked up the book and decided to read through it again. I can't believe how much I missed the first time through. Sure, not all of it has everything to do with the storyline, but it's all entertaining, and quite funny in many places.
The best example I can (sorta) remember is when the younger Waterhouse is at the estate of his newly deceased grandmother, and all the relatives are trying madly to get the best inheritance. Waterhouse devises a formula that gets him what he wants. The whole scene had very little to do with the storyline, but it was great to read, and I'm glad he put it in there.
If you want short and to the point, go see a movie. Also, you dont know long and drawn out unless you've read the unabridged "Les Miserables."
I have to agree, I found Snow Crash and Diamond Age hard to put down, but Cryptonomicon hard to pick back up.
I actually abandoned it about 3/4 of the way through, finding it, as you said, just too long for the content and a little silly.
One of my biggest complaints about SnowCrash and Diamond Age is that he starts with great characters and premises and then crashes them into these global apocalyptic endings that are a bit ludicrous.
Syntax error: loose != lose, affect != effect, then!=than
Neal Stephenson's writing style apes Thomas Pynchon quite a bit. Pynchon's last book was Mason & Dixon, which took place in the 1700's and was written in a faux-18th century style of writing. Neal's author biography on the Quicksilver website is written in a similar style.
Fortunately, the preview of the book isn't written like that. Last thing I want to do is slug through another 800 pages of "picnicks" and other arbitrary 18th century capitalization and spelling choices. At least Pynchon didn't also use those archaic "f"'s instead of "s"'s. (yes, I know they aren't really f's but that key isn't on my keyboard)
Good thing too. Given his style of writing and geeky subject matters, Stephenson has often been accused of writing like Pynchon a little too much....
More spoilers here (about Cryptonomicon)
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I'm hoping that you are refering to what I think you are referring to. In crypto, during the WWII timeline, Enoch root dies. Shaftoe and a surgeon they yanked out of his house are there when it happens. But, in the "present" timeline Enoch turns out to be Waterhouse's cell mate.
This confused the hell out of me when I first read it.
So, are you saying it's possible that Enoch is something more ephemeral? Either a time traveler, or a god or something along those lines? That could explain how he would turn up in some many desparate timelines (including, apparently, the Baroque period...)
I'm very curious to read this new book and find out.
Justin Dubs