From /tmp/sf.15692 Tue Mar 30 18:21:21 1993 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: lysator.liu.se!isy!liuida!sunic!mcsun!Germany.EU.net!news.netmbx.de!mailgzrz.TU-Berlin.DE!news.dfn.de!Sirius.dfn.de!ira.uka.de!yale.edu!qt.cs.utexas.edu!cs.utexas.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wupost!micro-heart-of-gold.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!nobody From: exile@wookumz.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Heresiarch) Subject: SNOW CRASH by Neal Stephenson Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Sender: news@news.media.mit.edu (USENET News System) Reply-To: exile@gnu.ai.mit.edu Organization: The Torch of Chaos and Doubt Distribution: rec Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1993 19:39:27 GMT Approved: wex@media.mit.edu (Alan Wexelblat) Lines: 39 It has become customary to compare any novel that treats the relationship of humans to their computer-generated fantasy worlds to Gibson, and to label all such novels 'cyberpunk.' _Neuromancer_ proposed the technological metaphor for despair, a TV tuned to a dead chanel. A 'snow crash' is a similar image. A computer experiencing an error state may crash so hard that the screen dissolves in meaningless fuzz. Having made the ob cyberpunk comparison, I will state that it's totally unfair to compare Neal Stephenson with Gibson. Gibson with a sense of humor and character development, maybe. Stephenson knows computers, and has devised his own ACM-sanctioned virtual reality that is a reasonable extrapolation from current technology, and offers us a deeply-researched root mythology that isn't voodoun, which is becoming the elves-and-King-Arthur of technological fiction. Hiro Protagonist (last of the freelance hackers, greatest sword fighter in the world, stringer, Central Intelligence Corporation, Specializing in software-related intel (music, movies & microcode) is no Case. _Snow_Crash_ is the only truly successful present-tense narrative I've ever read. The book layout makes subtle use of desk-top publishing and the occasional graphic to give the narrative an additional dimension. By now you've probably figured that I liked it. Go read it before it starts to look dated and quaint. %T Snow Crash %A Neal Stephenson %C New York %D June 1992 %I Bantam Books %O paperback, US$10.00 %G ISBN 0-553-35192-3 %P 440pp -- ___________________________________________________________________ blues-hearted lady, sleepy was she love for the devil brought her to me -aerosmith From /tmp/sf.1110 Fri Jul 23 13:47:20 1993 Path: liuida!sunic!uunet!psinntp!dg-rtp!sheol!dont-reply-to-paths From: wex@media.mit.edu ("Alan (Gesture Man) Wexelblat") Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Review of SNOW CRASH Approved: sfr%sheol@concert.net (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <9306261453.AA16856@media.mit.edu> Date: 27 Jun 93 00:25:06 GMT Lines: 85 Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson Review Copyright (c) 1993 Alan Wexelblat [Warning! Contains major spoilers. If you haven't read the book, go read it. If you have, this review tells you what I thought of it. --AW] Sigh. I wonder if I'm turning into an old curmudgeon, or if I just like committing heresy. Back in the Bad Old Days (tm) I ranted and raved in praise of a bunch of writers almost no one had heard of: Gibson, Sterling, Cadigan. These days that stuff is old hat. It's bloody everywhere, from the cover of TIME magazine to the latest Billy Idol album (inspired by reading and talking with Gibson). Of course, the pop-cyberpunk wave is about 8 years behind the times, but hey, that's not so bad. These days, the Really Cool d00dz (also tm) have a different totem on which to fetishize: Neal Stephenson and his dissection of post-Reagan techno- culture, SNOW CRASH. Everyone I talk to is raving about this book, even some of the people who can't stomach Gibson. "Cyberpunk with a sense of humor" is the oft-repeated phrase. Yeah, the book is funny in places. In a way it's like Tom Robbins meets John Shirley. Stephenson takes the mini-mall, techno-freak, MTV generation and grows it like a culture in a Petri dish until it encompasses his world. His alternate-present America is franchise city from coast to coast. Into it he throws an aging hacker/ronin, Hiro Protagonist, and a young skateboarding Kourier, Y.T. These two, backed by the forces of Good (the Mafia, Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong, etc) battle the forces of Evil (primarily L. Bob Rife and his church, but aided by a seemingly-invincible Inuit assassin whose sole goal in life is to nuke America). For the first couple hundred pages of the book, Stephenson rocks along, describing how Hiro gets in trouble with the Mafia and YT bails him out, describing the Metaverse (Stephenson's version of cyberspace), and generally setting the plot up. I liked this part of the book; it seems to be the part that most people talk about when they rave about how cool SNOW CRASH is. And it is pretty cool. Stephenson has enough techie background that he makes his Metaverse pretty real (although he glosses over "minor" problems like, what is the form of input used by people who have only goggles for an interface?). And I do like the way Stephenson makes "hypercard" into a generic noun for any hypermedia stack-like object. He does make some big errors, though, like the point of black-and-white avatars. The quality of how you look to me in the Metaverse won't depend on your input hardware nearly as much as it will on my output hardware. I can create on a crappy VGA PC code for some images which will look phenomenal on a top-of-the-line SGI. But then there's the last 200 or so pages of the book. The part where the plot is actually supposed to be developed. This is where the book just falls down and dies. It becomes a lesson in Sumerian-era history, complete with page after page of stultifying info dump given by a Librarian which is supposed to be able to do historical research but can't even understand simple analogies (yeah, right). Now, I have to admit that the parallels Stephenson draws between the plots of the legends of Enki and SNOW CRASH's plot are very clever. But he totally undercuts his work by not allowing the reader to figure out any of this for herself. Instead, Hiro explains it all by talking back to the Librarian, showing point-for-point how it's supposed to work. It feels to me like Stephenson doesn't have enough confidence either in himself or in his readers. The ending is also a big letdown. Stephenson doesn't seem to have the guts to kill off any of the major characters. The confrontation between Raven and Hiro -- which is supposedly set up to be a grand payback for what happened to their fathers -- fizzles to an anticlimax and Raven vs. Uncle Enzo also ends in a draw. The problem is that Raven is working for the bad guys (and really is one in some ways). So if he wins (as he should, given how invincible Stephenson made him), what does that say? It looks like the author didn't have the courage of his characters, when it came down to it. So what does that mean? That I think this is a bad book? No, I don't think that. I think it's part of a literature grounded in the reality of the 90s, the way cyberpunk was grounded in the 80s reality. It's a book with flaws, and I just wish people would stop raving about it like it was the greatest thing since... well, since NEUROMANCER. %T Snow Crash %A Neal Stephenson %I Bantam/Spectra SF Paperback %G ISBN 0-553-56261-4 %D 1992 %O $5.99 %P 468 pp From /tmp/sf.1110 Fri Jul 23 13:58:59 1993 Xref: liuida rec.arts.sf.reviews:307 rec.arts.books:60054 alt.books.reviews:849 Path: liuida!sunic!uunet!psinntp!dg-rtp!sheol!dont-reply-to-paths From: ecl@mtgpfs1.mt.att.com (Evelyn Chimelis Leeper +1 908 957 2070) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.books,alt.books.reviews Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: SNOW CRASH by Neal Stephenson Approved: sfr%sheol@concert.net (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <9307211302.AA21799@mtgpfs1.mt.att.com> Date: 21 Jul 93 22:15:42 GMT Lines: 54 SNOW CRASH by Neal Stephenson A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1993 Evelyn C. Leeper Where was this at Hugo nomination time? I mean, I had heard some recommendations, but after reading the book, I don't understand why I didn't hear more. To paraphrase from THE LION IN WINTER, why did no one say "Hugo" and think of SNOW CRASH? In SNOW CRASH our hero/protagonist, Hiro Protagonist (yes, it's that sort of novel) starts out as a pizza deliverer for Uncle Enzo's Cosa Nostra Pizza. That's because in the early 21st century, the United States leads the world in four areas: music, movies, software, and high-speed delivery. Forced by circumstances to accept the help of Y.T., a young woman who finds excitement in high-speed skate-boarding as a courier, Hiro soon finds his hacker expertise tested in the Metaverse (Stephenson's version of virtual reality) to fight the "snow crash" virus--a virus that attacks not only computers, but people as well. And it's all connected with ancient Sumeria and the Tower of Babel.... Stephenson has certainly pulled together an unusual assortment of disciplines in this novel. His postulations regarding Sumer seem a bit weak (Sumer may have been the major civilization of its time in the Middle East, but it was not the only civilization, and there were many civilizations isolated from Sumer), and the description of pre-Sumerian cultures and memes does not sound accurate for a number of reasons. Stephenson avoids the path taken by many cyberpunk/virtual reality authors. He does not create a new language that the reader has to decipher (which concept, by the way, ties into the novel's premise, emphasizing the analogy of the relationship between reality and the novel to the relationship between the novel's reality and its Metaverse). He does use pop culture as a referent; for example, Hiro talks about Captain Kirk beaming up. Stephenson starts off at a break-neck pace, and by page 40 I found myself thinking, "If he keeps this up for 470 pages, I'm going to be exhausted by the time I finish this book!" Well, he does ease up a bit, but not much. SNOW CRASH is a roller coaster ride of virtual reality, linguistic theory, the origin of religions, and the future of our culture. I wish I had known about SNOW CRASH before Hugo nomination time. I *highly* recommend SNOW CRASH. %T Snow Crash %A Neal Stephenson %C New York %D May 1993 %I Bantam Spectra %O paperback, US$5.99 [1992] %G ISBN 0-553-56261-4 %P 470pp Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | ecl@mtgpfs1.att.com / Evelyn.Leeper@att.com From /tmp/sf.4258 Tue Feb 1 03:54:21 1994 Path: liuida!sunic!pipex!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!udel!news!dg-rtp!sheol!dont-reply-to-paths From: chess@watson.ibm.com (David M. Chess) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Review of Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash" Approved: sfr%sheol@concert.net (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <9309291707.AA24786@presto.ig.com> Date: 30 Sep 93 03:26:25 GMT Lines: 121 Note : Except for possibly a clue as to whether or not the heroes survive, I don't think there are any serious spoilers here. Executive summary : A delicious first 150 pages, followed by another 300 that aren't bad either. Lots of new concepts and funny extrapolations, a new world-conspiracy theory, and attractive tech in a light-cyberpunk setting. Recommended for Neophiles of all stripes, especially metalinguistic and Eristic hacker-types. Not recommended for those who insist on Serious Literature or Meaningful Character Development. Setting : North America and contiguous seas, primarily around Los Angeles, sometime after the breakup of the U.S. Government (well, it's still around, but in liddle privatized pieces). The urban landscape is dominated by rich enclaves ("burbclaves") with their own (generally vendored-out) police forces, and by "franchulates" ("franchise consulates"?), including Metazanias, New South Africas, Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kongs, Snooze 'n' Cruises, Hoosegows, CosaNostra Pizza, Reverend Wayne's Pearly Gates, and so on. Kouriers on skateboards zoom down the (private) highways, their MagnaPoons firmly attached to bimbo boxes and speeding pizza-delivery cars. In other words, just like now, only more so. Cyberspace is here, too; it's called the Metaverse or the Street, and it's developing nicely. Premise : Our heroes, a hacker who was involved with the early development of the Metaverse but is now down on his luck, and a 15-year-old Kourier who tries to conceal her job from her mom, get involved with all sorts of the Major Players in the world when someone finds something very very interesting in ancient Sumeria. Story : I lost track several times, but it doesn't really matter! The good guys eventually figure out who the worst of the bad guys are, and that some of the apparent bad guys are really not so bad, there's lots of confusion and shooting and things blowing up, and a tense chase scene on the Street as one of the somewhat-bad guys tries to deliver a (virtual) bomb that will burn out the (real) brains of most of the skilled hackers in the world. Something like that. The fun part is the setting, though, and rooting for the good guys, even if you're not sure exactly what's going on. There's also an interesting new world history / conspiracy theory here that might make a good Discordian heresy; episkopoi take note! Characterization : Stephenson has a hard time drawing unsympathetic characters. Everyone that we really get to know turns out to be more or less good-hearted and sympathetic. The one or two people who are the Real Bad Guys remain pretty much part of the scenery: both distant and somewhat flat. There's no character *development* to speak of, or at least I didn't notice any; the characters are finally doing something rad and worthwhile with all these skills they've picked up before the book opens, but the experiences don't seem to change them any. That's OK: this is a Read, not a Bildungsroman. Storytelling : This is the best part. Buy this book just for the prose and storytelling in the first 150 pages, and if your buttons are anything like my buttons, you won't be disappointed. Stephenson is on a roll, and he takes us with him, 'pooned along and riding in his wake, somewhat breathless (from the speed and from laughing so hard). In the midst of juggling a stream of undefined new words (don't worry; the referents will show up eventually!), you're knocked over by an offhand comment that's simultaneously utterly true and screamingly funny. Don't read it late at night if there's anyone in the next room trying to sleep. After the first 150 pages or so, the effect dies down. Either I just got used to it (I don't think so), or the author got tired, or he came out of whatever altered state he started out in. The rest of the book contains the occasional gem, but the mechanics of the action start to feel, well, mechanical. I could picture Stephenson making little flow-charts of who had to be where when, and how to get them all there in time. The characters apparently had access to these charts as well; the actual motivation for some of the movement and action (beyond that it was necessary for the plot) wasn't always clear to me. But maybe I just wasn't paying attention! Also, the bad guys seem to be rather stupid, and terrible shots. I cannot imagine *any* way our hero could have survived his final assault into Bad Guy territory. If this bothers you, this may bother you. On the other hand, if you enjoy hooting at the quality of training in Imperial Storm Trooper school, you may enjoy this as well. Science : The tech is mostly quite believable and well done, especially the background tech. The explanation of the Metaverse interface falls a little short; he goes to considerable lengths to explain how the output systems work (tuned lasers projecting on special goggles, etc), but gives no consistent clues as to how *input* works (at one point our hero ends up waving a sword around in real life while fighting in the Metaverse, but in another place he is walking around in the Metaverse while riding in a car in reality; so how does it work?). The various things involving viruses (biological, mental, and computer) are not badly done: I work with these things for a living, and I only winced a couple of times. Some of the tech in the world-history/conspiracy thread isn't explained well enough to convince me, but the grab of the idea itself pretty much makes up for that. Title : Stephenson says that "snow crash" is a hacker's term for when a system crashes so hard that the display turns to "snow" (like a TV between channels). Have any other hackers seen/used this term? I don't think I buy it: computer displays aren't RF driven, and aren't capable of displaying that kind of snow unless the hardware is broken in a very unlikely way; even the similar "random garbage on the screen" situation is pretty rare, and not all that related to the severity of the crash. If the CPU were in charge of the display sweep, I can see it, but I don't know of any systems like that. Recommendation: Yep! %A Stephenson, Neal %T Snow Crash %I Bantam Books; Spectra %C New York %D May 1993 (hardcover June 1992) %G ISBN 0-553-56261-4 %P 468 pp. %O paperback, US$5.99 - -- - David M. Chess / Invest for the Nanotech Era: High Integrity Computing Lab / Buy Atoms! IBM Watson Research From rec.arts.sf.written Mon Oct 17 23:09:49 1994 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!trane.uninett.no!eunet.no!nuug!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!rutgers!att-out!nntpa!gwills From: gwills@graceland.att.com (11265-Graham Wills) Subject: Review of new Neal Stephenson: DIAMOND AGE Message-ID: Sender: news@nntpa.cb.att.com (Netnews Administration) Nntp-Posting-Host: humes.ih.att.com Organization: AT&T References: <374iq2$sqo@icarus.convex.com> <37hotc$q94@ionews.io.org> Date: Mon, 17 Oct 1994 15:47:24 GMT Lines: 58 I was given a review copy by a friend and read the book mainly at 30,000 feet over the atlantic. It captured my interest more than is usual for a cyberpunk style book. Here's a few thoughts on it. DIAMOND AGE is a stylish book. Rather than trying for new ideas and theme, it uses a set of well-defined cyberpunk ideas and concentrates on welding them into a coherent whole, utilizing some excellent prose as a medium. As far as the mechanics of the story go, it spoils little to reveal that most of the action centres around a young street urchin who is given a present intended for a rather more wealthy customer. This present educates her far beyond her normal background. Anyone who has read "Ender's game" (and who hasn't?) should recognise the method of education, but in Stephenson's book it assumes a far larger importance, and is more interactive than in Card's, where it is a peripheral issue. Any more detail on the story line would be overly-revelatory, but be assured there are plenty of plots, factions, explosions, gritty detail, asian-wizard-scientists and so on. So how does it differ from other cyberpunk books, apart from generally being well-written? For one, Stephenson doesn't hit us with too much techno-speak, centering his attention on nano-technology, which is where all the interesting tech is happening in Diamond Age. Sure, they have head-mounted guns, computers and the like, but Stephenson is clearly uninterested in it. His touch with nano-tech is assured, giving detail where required and with a logical turn of thought on the side affects and obvious consequences. You won't have to wince when reading it. Secondly, the absence of large multinational corporations and the setting of power structures along clan lines, with nouveau-Victorians one of the most powerful (Victoria II sitting on her diamond throne gives one reason for the title of the book). Seeing a society based on morale and ethical differences rather than race and technology is a pleasant change, and Stephenson gives us, if not a totally believable society (seems a little fragile), but one different enough to be forgiveable. Against the good features must be set a number of poorly handled details. The main protaganist was unable to capture my sympathy - character detail does not seem to be a Stephenson acomplishment, but my tastes in SF probably are more demanding in this respect than the average. Caveat emptor. A more serious flaw was in the subplot handling and generally when bringing strands together. It seemed rather rushed and hurried, with plots hitting each other head on and melding of necessity rather than gently intertwining. Towards the end I began to lose my belief in the world as new material was rapidly inducted into the story. The climax left me more than a little unmoved - it could have finished just as easily a chapter earlier or after another chapter or so. Maybe that was the author's intent - if so, success was achieved. In summary, all cyberpunk fans should enjoy this book. It will seem familiar, yet different in important ways. For a general SF readership, I'd suggest waiting for paperback if you feel a little cash-strapped. I doubt anyone buying it in hardback will feel too disappointed though, so if you loved _Snow Crash_, give it a go. -Graham Wills -- Graham Wills Data Visualization / Software Research (11265) gwills@research.att.com AT&T Bell Laboratories, Indian Hill, Naperville IL From ../rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Nov 14 14:28:44 1995 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Sep 1 09:34:38 1995 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!sunic.sunet.se!mn6.swip.net!seunet!news2.swip.net!plug.news.pipex.net!pipex!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!newsfeed.internetmci.com!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!news!nobody From: "Danny Yee" Subject: Book Review - Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson) Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Sender: news@media.mit.edu (USENET News System) Organization: Basser Dept of Computer Sciece, Uni of Sydney, Australia Date: Tue, 29 Aug 1995 19:51:02 GMT Approved: wex@media.mit.edu (Alan Wexelblat) Lines: 30 title: Snow Crash by: Neal Stephenson publisher: Bantam Books 1992 subjects: science fiction other: 468 pages _Snow Crash_ is a fact-paced, near-future, cyberpunk thriller. Neither its technology -- cybernetic dogs, portable nuclear-powered gatling guns, ancient Sumerian neuro-linguistic programming --, its politics -- a libertarian world where the Mafia deliver pizzas and the Library of Congress has merged with the Central Intelligence Agency to form a public company --, or its plot (the principal characters have a superhero-like immunity to being hit when people shoot at them) withstand close inspection, but it's a lot of fun. _Snow Crash's_ biggest virtue is that it doesn't take itself at all seriously. %T Snow Crash %A Neal Stephenson %I Bantam Books %C New York %D 1992 %O paperback %G ISBN 0-553-56261-4 %P 468pp %K science fiction Danny Yee (danny@cs.su.oz.au) 26 August 1995 Copyright (c) 1995 Danny Yee | 230 reviews available at http://www.anatomy.su.oz.au/danny/book-reviews/index.html From ../rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Nov 14 14:31:47 1995 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Sep 19 17:26:24 1995 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.books Path: news.ifm.liu.se!fizban.solace.mh.se!paladin.american.edu!hookup!newshost.marcam.com!usc!howland.reston.ans.net!news.sprintlink.net!news.clark.net!rahul.net!a2i!bug.rahul.net!a2i!genmagic!sgigate.sgi.com!uhog.mit.edu!news!nobody From: "Evelyn C Leeper" Subject: ZODIAC by Neal Stephenson Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Keywords: author= Sender: news@media.mit.edu (USENET News System) Organization: Date: Sun, 17 Sep 1995 14:52:30 GMT Approved: wex@media.mit.edu (Alan Wexelblat) Lines: 46 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:837 rec.arts.books:131396 ZODIAC by Neal Stephenson Bantam Spectra, ISBN 0-553-57386-1, 1995 (1988c), 308pp, US$5.99 A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1995 Evelyn C. Leeper Before THE DIAMOND AGE, before SNOWCRASH, there was ZODIAC. Now, with Neal Stephenson's popularity and critical acclaim, Bantam has re-issued his earlier novel. (His first novel, THE BIG U, will be released, Stephenson is reported to said, "only over my dead body.") Unlike SNOWCRASH and THE DIAMOND AGE, ZODIAC is not about computers. It is rather about the environment, and while the hero uses computers to analyze toxic waste patterns and such, they are no more the center of attention than the character's watch. The hero is part of an environmental activist organization, not quite as large as Greenpeace, but also tending toward the dramatic (such as challenginga corporate president on television to drink water from near the outlet pipes from his factory). There is the same manic style that attracted such attention in SNOWCRASH, though not as developed. Naturally the problem the hero is trying to solve turns out to be bigger than originally thought, and at times verges on the unbelievable. (Not to mention that in the seven years since this book was first written we seem to have taken a different direction and Stephenson's then-near-future story now reads a bit like an alternate history.) But Stephenson's talent is not in writing a completely realistic story--it's in his writing style. And in that regard, this book delivers. You won't get any major philosophical ideas, but you will get an enjoyable read. Oh, and there is no Blue Kills, New Jersey, but there is a Route 88 off the Garden State Parkway (page 38). And there is a Chicopee, Massachusetts (page 279). I should know--I used to live there. %T Zodiac %A Neal Stephenson %C New York %D July 1995 %I Bantam Spectra %O paperback, US$5.99 [1988] %G ISBN 0-553-57386-1 %P 308pp Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | Evelyn.Leeper@att.com A good world needs knowledge, kindliness and courage; it does not need a regretful hankering after the past, or a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men. -- Bertrand Russell From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon May 27 01:08:29 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!paladin.american.edu!hookup!lll-winken.llnl.gov!uwm.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!usc!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!boulder!ucsub.Colorado.EDU!brock From: silverag@ix.netcom.com (Steven H Silver) Newsgroups: rec.arts.books.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Review of Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 24 May 1996 02:39:16 GMT Organization: University of Colorado at Boulder Lines: 77 Approved: brock@colorado.edu Message-ID: <4o37gk$5bv@peabody.colorado.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: ucsub.colorado.edu NNTP-Posting-User: brock Originator: brock@ucsub.Colorado.EDU Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.books.reviews:1656 rec.arts.sf.reviews:958 rec.arts.sf.written:153887 REVIEW THE DIAMOND AGE Edited by Neal Stephenson Bantam Spectra 0-553-09609-5 419pp/$22.95/February 1995 Archived at: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/3286/index.html Neal Stephenson's latest novel, The Diamond Age is an attempt to combine two recent SF sub-genres together. Stephenson has created a neo-Victorian (Steampunk) society which exists in a near future after the collapse of the nation-state (Cyberpunk). For good measure, Stephenson includes a heavy dose of nanotechnology. Stephenson works through a number of viewpoint characters although it centers on Nell, a young girl from the slums who could have grown up in any Dickens novel and John Percival Hackworth, the neo-Victorian social climber and nanotechnologist. Nell grows up in the type of home one wishes on no child. Her father deserted her mother before she was born and now her mother lives with increasingly abusive lovers. Her brother and protector, is continuously involved in the same sorts of crime which their father took part in. The only high point of Nell's existance are her stuffed animals and a strange book her brother gave her after attacking a neo- Victorian gentleman. The neo-Victorian gentleman, of course, is John Hackworth, the creator of A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer. This book was commissioned by Lord Alexander Chung-Sik Finkle-McGraw in order to help in raising his grand-daughter to be a proper neo-Victorian lady. Seeing a chance to help his own daughter get ahead, Hackworth arranged to have a second copy made, which was then stolen and given to Nell. The book, wriiten on "smart paper", forms the third major character of the story. It's purpose is to serve as an educational tool, entertainment and game for Nell, much as Orson Scott Card uses the video game in Ender's Game and The Lost Boys. As the novel progresses, the book's passages grow longer and longer. These passages, which do mirror and foreshadow Nell's own life and adventures wind up being redundant, since the plot occurs twice. Although Stephenson has innumerable memorable characters, he relegates most of them, to small support roles. In many cases, these characters, the most interesting in the book, are based on stock Victorian stereotypes. Judge Fang is the wise Oriental magistrate (poor choice of names. I kept expecting someone to jump out an explain that no-one expects the Spanish Inquisition), Doctor X is the inscrutable Chinese crime-lord (he does have a real name, but it is unpronounceable to Westerners), and Lord Finkle-McGraw, the perfect Victorian subversive. The merger of cyberpunk and steampunk fails also. Stephenson's society is so stereotypically Victorian, it is hard not to see it as some huge masquerade. However, Stephenson offers no wink and nudge to show that his characters are in on the joke. The Diamond Age has more substance than Stephenson's SnowCrash, but it is not as enjoyable as that earlier novel. %A Neal Stephenson %T The Diamond Age %I Bantam Spectra %C New York %D January 1995 %G 0-553-09609-5 %P 419 %O HC 22.95, PB $5.99 -- Steven H Silver Bibliographies on Jews in SF, Harry Turtledove, SF set in Chicago http://www.geocities.com/Athens/4208/sfbiblio.html HOMEPAGE: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/4208/index.html From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Jul 8 07:15:01 2003 Sender: wex@wherehoo.media.mit.edu From: "Rob, grandpa of Ryan, Trevor, Devon & Hannah" Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: "Cryptonomicon", Neal Stephenson Reply-To: rslade@sprint.ca Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Date: 12 May 2003 12:39:45 -0400 Message-ID: X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.7/Emacs 20.5 Lines: 47 NNTP-Posting-Host: wherehoo.media.mit.edu X-Trace: 1052757475 senator-bedfellow.mit.edu 3931 18.85.1.51 Path: news.island.liu.se!news.Update.UU.SE!puffinus.its.uu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!uninett.no!uio.no!news.tele.dk!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!news.telebyte.nl!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!dreaderd!not-for-mail Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:550 Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson Review Copyright 2003 Robert M. Slade A number of people, particularly those who liked "Snow Crash" have said that they did *not* like "Cryptonomicon." I'm at a loss to understand why. "Cryptonomicon" is much closer in style to "Snow Crash" than either was to, say, "The Diamond Age". Yes, this book is quite convoluted, but so was "Snow Crash". And there is the same accuracy in terms of technology. The cryptography, while not exhaustively covering the field, provides an excellent overview of some basic concepts. Similarly, the current work also flips back and forth between generations. The extent of switching, in fact, is sufficient that some have wondered if there is a message encoded in the "change of state" from past to present between chapters. I haven't yet heard from anyone who has actually tried to find such a message. The characters are sympathetic, the situations are entertainingly absurd, and, despite the demands that the book makes on a reader, I quite enjoyed it. %A Neal Stephenson %C 1350 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019 %D 1999 %G 0-380-97346-4 %I Avon Books/The Hearst Corporation %O U$27.50/C$39.50 +1-800-238-0658 avonweb@hearst.com %O http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0380973464/robsladesinterne http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0380973464/robsladesinte-21 %O http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0380973464/robsladesin03-20 %P 918 p. %T Cryptonomicon rslade@sprint.ca rslade@vcn.bc.ca slade@victoria.tc.ca p1@canada.com "If you do buy a computer, don't turn it on." - Richards' 2nd Law ============= for back issues: [Base URL] site http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev/ or mirror http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~rslade/ CISSP refs: [Base URL]mnbksccd.htm Security Dict.: [Base URL]secgloss.htm Security Educ.: [Base URL]comseced.htm Book reviews: [Base URL]mnbk.htm [Base URL]review.htm Partial/recent: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/techbooks/ Security Educ.: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/comseced/ Review mailing list: send mail to techbooks-subscribe@egroups.com