June 17, 2003
QUICKSILVER....Short Hope Unfiltered reports that Quicksilver, Neal Stephenson's followup to the wonderful Cryptonomicon, is now available for pre-ordering on Amazon and will be available September 23rd.
About damn time, I say. If you ask me, we ought to pass a constitutional amendment requiring Stephenson to write faster.
Posted by Kevin Drum at June 17, 2003 02:12 PM
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At the risk of being drummed off into the sunset, I just don't find Stephenson all that exciting.
But, I'll grant you that amendment if you'll grant me one requiring Neil Gaiman and Jonathan Lethem to write faster as well.
I agree that it is very important that his book be available soon,
but do we have to make a Constitutional case out of everything? After
all the free market is getting us the book. ;)
Um..I just like codes and stuff, kay? :) Cryptonomicon was good enough to make me eager to read Quicksilver.
I've heard of that book now a couple of times, but I can't remember
under what circumstances. Anyone so devoted to it that they'd feel like
making a quick pitch? (And saving me a little Googling?)
My order's in. Can the amendment include George Martin too? And
C.J. Cherryh? I get a book, I dork out for an entire weekend...and then
for two years--or more! :( --no new book. (Actually I wasn't much of a
fan on Stephenson myself until Cryptonomicon--his earlier books have
all these cool ideas like smart paper and franchise nations, but they
seem to bonk into a wall at the end of the plot. Cryptonomicon was
awesome...I've got to get a new copy, I left mine somewhere...). And
while we're at it can we please raise Jane Austen from the dead and have
her beat up all the people who are making awful costume dramas out of
her books...and write more books? please? oh, never mind.
I'm short on details, but here's what I know about Quicksilver so
far. It's set 300 years ago and involves a further history of crypto
and it's role in history. There are apparently family connections
between Quicksilver and Cryptonomicon.
Website for Quicksilver is at http://www.baroquecycle.com/
Preview from website:
***************
In this wonderfully inventive follow-up to his bestseller Cryptonomicon,
Neal Stephenson brings to life a cast of unforgettable characters in a
time of breathtaking genius and discovery, men and women whose exploits
defined an age known as the Baroque.
Daniel Waterhouse possesses a brilliant scientific mind — and yet
knows that his genius is dwarfed by that of his friends Isaac Newton,
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, and Robert Hooke. He rejects the arcane
tradition of alchemy, even as it is giving birth to new ways of
understanding the world.
Jack Shaftoe began his life as a London street urchin and is now a
reckless wanderer in search of great fortune. The intrepid exploits of
Half-Cocked Jack, King of the Vagabonds, are quickly becoming the stuff
of legend throughout Europe.
Eliza is a young woman whose ingenuity is all that keeps her alive
after being set adrift from the Turkish harem in which she has been
imprisoned since she was a child.
Daniel, Jack, and Eliza will traverse a landscape populated by mad
alchemists, Barbary pirates, and bawdy courtiers, as well as historical
figures including Samuel Pepys, Ben Franklin, and other great minds of
the age. Traveling from the infant American colonies to the Tower of
London to the glittering courts of Louis XIV, and all manner of places
in between, this magnificent historical epic brings to vivid life a time
like no other, and establishes its author as one of the preeminent
talents of our own age.
*********
At any rate, I've already got my pre-order in.
And just WHERE is Mark Twin when he's really needed?
There aughta be a law!
[sheepish facial expression] That's Twain - MARK TWAIN!!!
Is anyone else bothered by:
1.) Stephenson's utter ineptitude when it comes to crafting satisfying endings to his books?
2.) His odd (to say the least) attitudes towards women? I mean,
Shaftoe's daughter as a vessel for the repressed protagonist of Crypto's
spunk? The nameless chick who gets screwed until she immolates in
Diamond Age?
I mean, don't get me wrong; his writing is intensely readable, and I
love his treatment of geek themes. But I have to wonder, did Stephenson
never reach that magic point in a geek's life when members of the
opposite sex aren't some alien life form to be feared?
Jus' curious.
-M.
I don't have any comment on his treatment of women, but I agree that
his endings in both Snow Crash and Diamond Age really sucked.
However, Cryptonomicon was better in that respect, so at least he's
improving. And basically, I think his writing is so much fun that I'm
willing forgive his weak endings.
Neal not only has a wife, but also children. So he probably doesn't
find women completely alien. Shall I bring the up the problem of
endings next time I run across him? (He lives here in Seattle and he
and my husband have done a little business.)
CJ Cherryh has had some health problems in recent years which has
probably slowed down the production considerably. As for Martin, well,
when you're writing big honking fantasies, it takes a while. I don't
Get Lethem, though he seems a very nice man, so I haven't kept up with
him. And Austen, alas, is pretty much lost to us.
MKK--I hang out at sf conventions a lot I actually know some of these people
I don't Get Lethem, though he seems a very nice man, so I haven't kept up with him.
I'll grant you that some of his books need to be Gotten, and might be a bit difficult to do so (As She Climbed Across the Table, perhaps Girl in Landscape) but a lot of his stuff is just fun stories with some weirdness sprinkled in (Amnesia Moon, Gun, with Occasional Music and Motherless Brooklyn).
Not trying to pick a fight.. I'm just curious what it is you read and didn't Get.
Not trying to pick a fight.. I'm just curious what it is you read and didn't Get.
Oh, that's ok. There's a button that says, "Science fiction fandom, where people disagree with you just to be polite."
There is just writing whose wonderfulness doesn't come through to me.
Lots of people talk about Lethem as though he were the Second Coming
and I don't see why. Most of his stuff is either mildly pleasant or
completely incomprehensible to me. I also Don't Get Connie Willis and
Gene Wolfe. Philip K Dick, on the other hand, I get entirely and hate
hate hate. Life's just like that, ya know?
MKK -- Oh, I read Gun With Occasional Music and some of the short stories.
Aha - so not some fundamental misunderstanding or anything.. just the same reason I'm not fanatical about Stephenson...
And here I was ready to go poring over my Lethem stuff for complex themes I managed to miss. ;)
Well, in the spirit of fandom politeness.... ;-)
1. I found the female characters in both Diamond Age & Snow Crash
to be wonderful, complex and real. Cryptomicron was a step back in
that regard. I'd love to know what happened.
Watching Stephenson's writing evolve through Zodiac to Snow Crash to
Diamond Age has been one of my greatest pleasures as a reader. I put
down Diamond Age convinced that he deserved and would receive a
MacArthur award -- soon. Cryptomicron is a step back to Snow Crash,
minus the nifty skatergrrl, and my MacArthur nomination is on hold.
2. The last lines of Diamond Age remind me of the ending of Great
Gatsby. Never thought either it or Snow Crash were poorly ended.
CJ Cherryh has been ill?!? No, no, no....
If it takes him a long time to craft something as wonderful as Cryptonomicon then I can wait.
Agree about the endings. The ending of Diamond Age read like he had a deadline and just pasted his synopsis in.
Regarding women, Michael Wolfe is absolutely right, but it goes to
the heart of another problem, which is that he can't write sex scenes -
the scene with Turing and his lover at Princeton is embarassing.
Stephenson is sometimes compared with Pynchon. They're not even close
stylistically, intellectually, or on the level of paranoia. Tom is a
neo-Luddite, Neal likes gizmos. Tom is obtuse but splendid while Neal
always is a fun read, the only sci fi author I like. Leave it at that.
It does no one any good to compare apples and oranges.
C. J. Cherryh must be getting a bit on in years by now, since I'm
getting a bit on in years and she taught English at my high school . . .
(unfortunately, I didn't get her class)
C. J. Cherryh must be getting a bit on in years by now, since I'm
getting a bit on in years and she taught English at my high school . . .
(unfortunately, I didn't get her class)
Greetings fellow Okie! I remember how she impressed us all at JCL
when I was in high school. (Late 60s) Lessee since I'm almost 51, and
she'd have to have been in her mid 20s probably when I was, say 16, that
would make her late 50s to early 60s.
MKK
Is Diamond Age a sequel to Snowcrash?
It takes time for a doorstop of the size that I'm expecting
"Quicksilver" to be to get written, when the writer is using a fountain
pen to write the rough draft. (I know from experience.)
(Oh, and I reported the Sept 23 release date way back in mid-May!)
Is Diamond Age a sequel to Snowcrash?
No. It would be difficult to find two less connected books.
MKK
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