Neal Stephenson







Neal Stephenson

author profile


born
October 31, 1959

gender
male

place of birth
Fort Meade, Maryland, The United States

website

genre
Science Fiction & Fantasy, Nonfiction

influences
Bruce Sterling, William Gibson


about this author

Neal Town Stephenson is an American writer known primarily for his science fiction works in the postcyberpunk genre with a penchant for explorations of society, mathematics, cryptography, currency, and the history of science. He also writes non-fiction articles about technology in publications such as Wired Magazine, and has worked part-time as an advisor for Blue Origin, a company (funded by Jeff Bezos) developing a manned sub-orbital launch system. He has co-written two books with his uncle George F. Jewsbury under the joint pseudonym Stephen Bury.

Stephenson's books tend to have elaborate, inventive plots drawing on numerous technological and sociological ideas at the same time. This distinguishes him from other mainstream sc...more




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avg rating: 4.03 | 47,366 ratings | 4,561 reviews | 23 distinct works | 262 fans
Snow Crash Snow Crash
by Neal Stephenson
avg rating 4.04 — 14,132 ratings — published 1992
27 editions
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Cryptonomicon Cryptonomicon
by Neal Stephenson
avg rating 4.21 — 7,188 ratings — published 1999
15 editions
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The Diamond Age: Or, a Young L... The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (Bantam Spectra Book)
by Neal Stephenson
avg rating 4.14 — 5,878 ratings — published 1995
20 editions
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Quicksilver Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 1)
by Neal Stephenson
avg rating 3.83 — 3,971 ratings — published 2003
15 editions
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The Confusion The Confusion (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 2)
by Neal Stephenson
avg rating 4.15 — 2,498 ratings — published 2004
11 editions
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The System of the World The System of the World (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 3)
by Neal Stephenson
avg rating 4.23 — 2,083 ratings — published 2004
10 editions
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Anathem Anathem
by Neal Stephenson
avg rating 4.19 — 2,040 ratings — published 2008
11 editions
my rating:
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Zodiac Zodiac
by Neal Stephenson
avg rating 3.63 — 2,329 ratings — published 1992
14 editions
my rating:
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In the Beginning...was the Com... In the Beginning...was the Command Line
by Neal Stephenson
avg rating 3.74 — 1,078 ratings — published 1999
3 editions
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The Big U The Big U
by Neal Stephenson
avg rating 3.13 — 891 ratings — published 1984
5 editions
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More books by Neal Stephenson…

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interviews

September 2008, Neal Stephenson
"I see this as more and more of a social class issue. I'm remembering the advent of late '60s/early '70s drug culture when I was a kid. Authority figures would try to scare us away from drugs, and whether or not we were actually using drugs, we would just laugh at them because their threats and warnings seemed so overwrought." ...More

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"Until a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfucker in the world. If I moved to a martial-arts monastery in China and studied real hard for ten years. If my family was wiped out by Colombian drug dealers and I swore myself to revenge. If I got a fatal disease, had one year to live, and devoted it to wiping out street crime. If I just dropped out and devoted my life to being bad."
Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash)
5 editions
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"The difference between stupid and intelligent people – and this is true whether or not they are well-educated – is that intelligent people can handle subtlety. "
Neal Stephenson (The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer)
5 editions
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"Arguing with anonymous strangers on the Internet is a sucker's game because they almost always turn out to be--or to be indistinguishable from--self-righteous sixteen-year-olds possessing infinite amounts of free time."
Neal Stephenson (Cryptonomicon)
5 editions
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topics mentioning this author

topics posts views last activity  
SciFi and Fantasy...: Anathem 29 195 12/14/2008 06:08AM  
The Book Challenge: Meghan's 2008 Challenge - COMPLETED 66 174 02/19/2009 08:31AM  
Fantasy Book Club: What are you reading in March? 73 161 03/29/2009 05:36PM  
Beyond Reality: Hugo Awards! 9 63 04/05/2009 07:09PM  
Goodreads Librarians: Librarian Notes are Live 37 112 04/21/2009 11:38PM  
SciFi and Fantasy...: Sequel to Cryptonomicon? 3 37 04/26/2009 07:59PM  
Wild Things: YA G...: What We Are Reading Now 5 42 05/25/2009 07:48AM  
Goodreads Librarians: eBooks 11 51 30 days ago, 12:25AM  
The Next Best Boo...: Jason's 2009 Good (and not so good) Reads 19 181 21 days ago, 08:10PM