Neal Stephenson





Neal Stephenson

Author profile


born
October 31, 1959 in Fort Meade, Maryland, The United States

gender
male

website

genre

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


See if your friends have read any of Neal Stephenson's books.
Sign up »
Average rating: 3.93 · 158,812 ratings · 11,060 reviews · 39 distinct works
Snow Crash
3.76 of 5 stars 3.76 avg rating — 65,351 ratings — published 1992 — 44 editions
My rating:
didn't like it it was ok liked it really liked it it was amazing
add to my books
Cryptonomicon
4.21 of 5 stars 4.21 avg rating — 22,566 ratings — published 1999 — 26 editions
My rating:
didn't like it it was ok liked it really liked it it was amazing
add to my books
The Diamond Age: Or, a Young L...
4.15 of 5 stars 4.15 avg rating — 18,023 ratings — published 1995 — 36 editions
My rating:
didn't like it it was ok liked it really liked it it was amazing
add to my books
Anathem
4.18 of 5 stars 4.18 avg rating — 11,175 ratings — published 2008 — 24 editions
My rating:
didn't like it it was ok liked it really liked it it was amazing
add to my books
Quicksilver (Baroque Cycle, #1...
3.84 of 5 stars 3.84 avg rating — 10,330 ratings — published 2003 — 25 editions
My rating:
didn't like it it was ok liked it really liked it it was amazing
add to my books
The Confusion (The Baroque Cyc...
4.17 of 5 stars 4.17 avg rating — 6,379 ratings — published 2004 — 20 editions
My rating:
didn't like it it was ok liked it really liked it it was amazing
add to my books
The System of the World (The B...
4.24 of 5 stars 4.24 avg rating — 5,556 ratings — published 2004 — 15 editions
My rating:
didn't like it it was ok liked it really liked it it was amazing
add to my books
Zodiac
3.63 of 5 stars 3.63 avg rating — 5,576 ratings — published 1988 — 21 editions
My rating:
didn't like it it was ok liked it really liked it it was amazing
add to my books
Reamde
3.91 of 5 stars 3.91 avg rating — 4,673 ratings — published 2011 — 16 editions
My rating:
didn't like it it was ok liked it really liked it it was amazing
add to my books
In the Beginning...Was the Com...
3.77 of 5 stars 3.77 avg rating — 2,494 ratings — published 1999 — 8 editions
My rating:
didn't like it it was ok liked it really liked it it was amazing
add to my books
More books by Neal Stephenson…
Quicksilver The Confusion The System of the World
The Baroque Cycle (3 books)
by
4.033733639185 of 5 stars 4.03 avg rating — 22,233 ratings
Quicksilver King of the Vagabonds Odalisque The Confusion, Part I The Confusion, Part II Solomon's Gold (The Baroque Cy... Currency
The Baroque Cycle (8 volumes) (8 books)
by
4.20667957405615 of 5 stars 4.21 avg rating — 2,066 ratings
Criptonomicón I: El Código E... Criptonomicón II: El Código... Criptonomicón III: El Código...
Criptonomicón (3 books)
by
4.07823129251701 of 5 stars 4.08 avg rating — 294 ratings

Upcoming Events

No scheduled events. Add an event.

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

more interviews »

“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

“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

“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

Polls

This is the vote to determine the selection for the March Science Fiction Theme: Nanotechnology

 
  18 votes 29.0%

 
  16 votes 25.8%

 
  10 votes 16.1%

 
  8 votes 12.9%

 
  7 votes 11.3%

 
  3 votes 4.8%

62 total votes
comments and details
More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics posts views last activity  
SciFi and Fantasy...: Anathem 29 259 Dec 14, 2008 06:08am  
The Book Challenge: Meghan's 2008 Challenge - COMPLETED 66 285 Feb 19, 2009 08:31am  
Fantasy Book Club: What are you reading in March? 73 219 Mar 29, 2009 05:36pm  
Beyond Reality: Hugo Awards! 9 76 Apr 05, 2009 07:09pm  
Goodreads Librarians: Librarian Notes are Live 37 135 Apr 21, 2009 11:38pm  
SciFi and Fantasy...: Sequel to Cryptonomicon? 3 96 Apr 26, 2009 07:59pm  
Wild Things: YA G...: What We Are Reading Now 5 49 May 25, 2009 07:48am  
Goodreads Librarians: eBooks 11 78 Jun 05, 2009 12:25am  
SciFi and Fantasy...: What I am also reading in April 41 262 Jun 30, 2009 07:43pm  
Beyond Reality: What are you reading right now? 180 332 Jul 01, 2009 01:34am  


Is this you? Let us know. If not, help out and invite Neal to Goodreads.