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author: Neal Stephenson

Neal Stephenson is one of my favorite authors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neal_Stephenson

He is really into history, linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, religion, computer science, politics, cryptography, and philosophy (I got that from wikipedia) and his novels are very entertaining. I always thought they would be great for unschooled teenagers (although there are sex scenes in the books, so maybe not young teenagers.)

Snow Crash, The Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon are excellent. Zodiac is also good. He more recently wrote a trilogy (The Baroque Cycle) that I couldn't really get into.

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Permalink Reply by Erik Adler on September 7, 2008 at 7:21pm

Hello Bea,

Too bad we didn't get into this at L&L. It was great to meet you. Neal is a great author! Snow Crash is in my top 3 all time favorite books.

But I differ on the sex scenes. The kids will have to learn about it sooner or later. It's either going to be Neal or a Playboy magazine first. Why not something that doesn't exploit gender?

Erik

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Permalink Reply by Bea Mantovani on September 8, 2008 at 7:47am

Hi Erik!

It was great meeting you and your family too!

I agree with you about the sex scenes. I just wanted to warn potential readers (and their parents ;-) I love that the female characters in Neal's novels are strong and strong willed. And the sex scenes reflect that too.

Bea

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Permalink Reply by James Marcus Bach on July 6, 2009 at 8:23pm

These are not kids book, though. Be aware of that.

I couldn't get into Snow Crash.

I loved the Cryptonomicon, even though it felt a little long.

Zodiac was educational. Made me want to learn organic chemistry.

I gave up on the Baroque cycle. After 150 pages I really wanted SOMETHING to HAPPEN.

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Permalink Reply by jen on September 13, 2009 at 12:10pm

I loved the Baroque series. He can get wordy at times, but he is so very good with language, that I found it interesting. It did move slow, at first, but I was a wonderfully complex plot, with a lot of ideas to chew on.

Maybe it helps if you are into historical fiction.

I think I need to read Snow Crash again. It has been long enough that I seem to have forgotten what it was about.

James Marcus Bach said:

These are not kids book, though. Be aware of that.

I couldn't get into Snow Crash.

I loved the Cryptonomicon, even though it felt a little long.

Zodiac was educational. Made me want to learn organic chemistry.

I gave up on the Baroque cycle. After 150 pages I really wanted SOMETHING to HAPPEN.