Books I Loathed discussion
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Snow Crash
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Bronwyn
(last edited Aug 25, 2016 12:51PM)
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Sep 30, 2007 06:57PM

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Steve-O, I'm right with you on the baroque trilogy, though. It's the only series of books I've ever read where I've gotten halfway through the last book in the series and then decided I didn't care enough to finish it. I have a couple friends who adore it and apparently managed to keep track of all the characters and their soap opera of shifting alliances and mutual finance, but I thought it was bloated, unfunny, and contained exactly one character compelling enough to warrant an entire book. And L'Emmerdeur is relegated to inconsequence for hundreds of pages at a time while the author's attention returns to the excruciatingly boring scenes of 17th century W. European political infighting. Maybe I'm not smart enough, but Stephenson completely forgot to make some of the connections and implications of all the economics and science clear for his readers, let alone weave it into his story enough to make this reader care. What a flop.

Anyone read his essay, "In the Beginning Was the Command Line"? It's excellent.


seriously, though, I thought Snow Crash was great. Perhaps not his best, but quite imaginative and I would argue well written for what it was (i'm sorry Bronwyn, but looking at your rating for Harry Potter in comparison, i just can't take you seriously. SC trumps HP in writing and imagination).
good suggestion regarding Zodiac, Natalie.
Stephenson is a strange writer. There's Cryptonomicon (a masterpiece) and then there's his other shorter novels which are sorta cyberpunk/sci-fi, but they've got this grandiose almost Hollywood adventure feel to their plots and climaxes. I find that extremely fun (and I'm surprised they haven't made any into movies yet). Then I guess he thought people would like more heavy reading and did the Baroque cycle. highly disappointing. he should stick with the computers or the outrageous cyber-future adventures.
A number of his early books all had a weird climax-that-wasn't: an event that almost happened but didn't, or was stymied, or lacked much emotional or plot significance. It never felt like disaster diverted, but like running out of steam. Cryptonomicon tried something different, but ellided over some troubling questions about the effects of liquid metal, the presumed destruction of priceless art, etc. Then he switched to interminable with no plots. I'm willing to suspend a lot of disbelief, but the completely unsupported "oh, Jack somehow beat syphillis" (or whatever; I'm not going to look it up) annoyed me; it was about as skillful as Homer Simpson's fix for the scene where Greystash the Wizard died (Lisa character: "I somehow escaped from the hourglass!").