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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."
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 heard Stephenson give a lecture at Carnegie Mellon University on Thursday of last week, where he discussed this novel. It sounded very interesting, albeit a departure from his normal science fiction type novels. He discussed what he considered to be the "soap opera" of the Newton-Leibniz controversy regarding the invention of calculus, which spread to other areas. Eventually this led up to a description of Leibniz's ideas metaphysics, which he regards as highly relevant in regards to computer science, cellular automata, and quantum physics. His descriptions of these events were slightly convoluted but that was part of their charm, and while I expected some type of discussion of technology or Snow Crash / Cryptonomicon type topics, I was pleasantly surprised to hear his 18th century tangent. He's a very talented and fascinating man.
On a side note, he mentioned that he only speaks about once every five years and that he's very anti-social. He said his books are not a social process and come entirely from him, as opposed to including feedback from others. Still, I'm glad to have this man off in his little corner of the world thinking and researching about fascinating topics, broadcasting his findings to the rest of us.
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.
Even in the the 1700s the Shaftoes were some bad mutha-
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yes, it's called _A Signal Shattered_, and it was jus as good if not better. wish he'd do another..
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!
Spoiler space.
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It might be possible that we are talking about Enoch Root, not only a relative with the same name, but the same person who appears on Cryptonomicon. It's been hinted a few times in several places, Cryptonomicon included. Stephenson himself said that there's a "SciFi" turn in Cryptonomicon which will become more evident in Quicksilver.
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.
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 =)
So this is the prequel to Cryptonomicon basically.
I heard that he wants to make the prequel kid-friendly, and is introducing a large-eared sidekick that has an amusing Jamacian accent. I'm really looking forward to this one.
The middle mind speaks!
As this page reminds, Enoch died in cryptonomicon and came back later on.
I knew that wasn't a plot hole.
Interesting indeed.
(2,3-Benzopyrrole)
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