Neal stephenson is the author of reamde, anathem, and the threevolume historical epic the baroque cycle quicksilver, the confusion, and the system of the world, as well as cryptonomicon, the diamond age, snow crash, and zodiac. Showing he is more than capable of turning any technology into a gripping. The best neal stephenson books 1 snow crash neal stephenson. He was first published in 1984, but it was not until the publication of his third book snow crash that he became widely known. Cryptonomicon by neal stephenson is a speculative fiction novel published in 1999. Beyond his series work, like the baroque cycle, hes got plenty of standalone nove. His books are so good, the suspense might kill you and yet you will keep turning pages while reading his amazing stories. Neal stephenson is tired of dystopias at disrupt sf youtube. With books like snow crash, cryptonomicon, and his baroque cycle series, the author has become an icon for all those readers who enjoy treaties on topics like cryptography, mathematics, history of. I have been using a treadmill desk for a few years, but in midjanuary of 2014 i began keeping. Ill add that stephenson is the single most important genre author of the last thirty years.
When an alien spacecraft is discovered orbiting the planet, it triggers a devotee named fraa erasmas to leave arbre and seek. Neal stephenson is an american author primarily of speculative fiction, but also of other subgenres of science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk and several other genres. A decade after novelist william gibson coined the term virtual reality, neal stephenson burst onto the science fiction scene with snow crash, his own manic take on the interface between man and machine. But the books feel too much like a well crafted but cheap soap opera to. When stephenson released cryptonomicon back in 1999, it was widely regarded as one. Neal stephenson is obviously bursting with knowledge, and i had to look up the meaning of.
His most recent one, reamde is a thriller, and probably more accessible than some of his earlier novels. It involves a fringe religious cult, a personal trainer named aomame who hunts and assassinates men who abuse women, a. Neal stephenson books, ebooks, audiobooks, biography. Neal stephenson is a popular speculative fiction author whose books feature mostly in the cyberpunk sciencefiction and technothriller genre. The final book in the bridge trilogy is the interstitial space between 80s cyberpunk chestnuts and. Neal stephenson is best known for his writing style which covers a fictional universe that ordinary people finds really odd. How neal stephenson got book ideas by moonlighting at blue origin many of the famed scifi author s ideas come from real world worklike helping the private space company blue origin find a. Neal stephenson s anathem takes place on the fictional planet arbre, a world populated by strictly monastic communities that have sworn off of technology and can communicate with the secular world just once every year. Neal stephenson books in order for his series and bestselling novels like cryptonomicon, snow crash, interface, reamde.
Cyberpunk as written by a computer scientist that alone would make it a very good book, but the reveal of the plot. The lesserknown brother of the novelist who created james bond, peter fleming. Ranking author neal stephensons best books a bibliography. Neal town stephenson born october 31, 1959 is an american writer known for his works of speculative fiction his novels have been categorized as science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk, postcyberpunk, and baroque stephenson s work explores subjects such as mathematics, cryptography, linguistics, philosophy, currency, and the history of science.
The book takes place between a new hope and the empire strikes back and features mara working with the hand of judgment stormtroopers, who were first introduced in allegiance another book. Since ive advocated for the use of treadmill desks in some remarks and evangelized it to people i know, i thought it behooved me to publish some data and some reflections on it, born of experience. He gained further notoriety in 1999 with the publication of cryptonomicon which would later go on to earn the prometheus hall of fame award in. Neal stephenson is an american penman who doubles up as a game designer. Anathem isnt an easy book, and its not a quick read. Cryptonomicon, written by neal stephenson, is a big book. We looked at all of stephenson authored bibliography and ranked them against one another to answer that very question. The birth name of the man of letters is neal town stephenson. Neal stephenson audio books, best sellers, author bio. The problem is the book feels like a soap opera adopted for literary form, and manages to strike a balance between machismo and drama that reels readers in.
Neal stephenson is the author of the threevolume historical epic the baroque cycle quicksilver, the confusion, and the system of the world and the novels cryptonomicon, the diamond age, snow crash, and zodiac. His novels involve subjects such as mathematics, philosophy and science. Major themes include the manyworlds interpretation of quantum mechanics and the philosophical debate between platonic realism and nominalism. Im a big, big stephenson fan, but i always struggle with this answer, so take it with a pinch of pixelated salt.
It has innumerable characters, enough plot to fill several books, and a theme that is presented in such exhaustive detail at some points that the reader has to lie down for awhile to absorb it all. The fall, or dodge in hell by neal stephenson predicts a bleak future where we create a form of immortality in which we are doomed to repeat our mistakes. Three brief versions of reamde can be found on the neal stephenson books rankings by fun, substance and mind bending. Since 1984, stephenson has lived mostly in the pacific northwest and currently resides in seattle with his family. Neil stephenson released snow crash back in 1992, and its still regarded by many people as his. Is it necessary to read any of neal stephensons books. Neal stephenson is the author of the threevolume historical epic the baroque cycle quicksilver, the confusion and the system of the world as well as the novels cryptonomicon, the diamond age winner of a hugo award, snow crash, zodiac, anathem and reamde. The story, set in the present day, centers on the plight of a hostage and the ensuing efforts of family and new acquaintances, many of them associated with a fictional mmorpg, to rescue her as her various captors drag her about the globe. Its also massive, and could probably have had at least a hundred pages taken out, without having a significant impact on the plots reamde is a rambling beast of a book i. In many ways, we are living in a neal stephenson future. In the age of 140 characters or less, there is still something to be said for reading a novel that is truly, deeply, maddeningly long. This book was a sensation when it published, establishing murakami as an icon.
Mostly known for his works of speculative fiction, he also writes short stories and essays. Stephenson, who is a quinquagenarian, was born on october 1959 and his place of birth is fort meade upon maryland, in the us. Neal stephenson 1959 is an american author, futurist and game designer most well known for his works of speculative fiction. Complete order of neal stephenson books in publication order and chronological order. Neal stephenson books list of books by author neal. Cryptonomicon by neal stephenson, snow crash by neal stephenson, the diamond age. The personal website of author neal stephenson, unless its been hacked.
Anathem is a science fiction novel by american writer neal stephenson, published in 2008. The 105 best philosophical novels january 16, 2020 february 14, 2017 based on curated lists from the guardian, flavorwire and more, suggestions from readers on goodreads, quora and reddit, and picks from philosophical fiction authors like khaled hosseini, irvin d. That is, until they are called back into the world to deal with a crisis of astronomical proportions. Yalom, rebecca goldstein and daniel quinn, here is a roundup of the 105 best. We took all of the books written by neal stephenson and looked at their goodreads, amazon, and librarything scores, ranking them against one another to see which books came out on top. All of the synopses are woefully inadequate to cram in a thousand pages of interesting characters brought to life in a twisting dance of battling human goals. But neal stephenson also has his other styles of writing because he can also cater to those who are looking for a nonfiction books that they can read. More recently, the cyberpunk visionary has turned his sights away from the future of technology, and toward the question of how and why it arose the way it did. This book won the locus award for best science fiction novel, mir fantastiki award for best foreign scifi novel, and prometheus hall of fame award. I can only assume you are looking to read neal stephenson and are worried about jumping into his work somewhere in the middle. As for neal stephenson, snow crash and diamond age are stand alone you can read them in any order, ive not read the cryptonomicon but im lead to believe that a lot of the concepts in it lead into the baroque cycle books so you would probably want to read it before them. How neal stephenson got book ideas by moonlighting at blue.