Computer Geeks: I just read Snow Crash and loved it. What next?

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Computer Geeks: I just read Snow Crash and loved it. What next?

Posted: 3/15/2006 6:54:50 PM EDT

As a computer geek, I loved Snow Crash. I want more just like it. What should I read next?

Posted: 3/15/2006 7:03:23 PM EDT

[#1]

Read all his other books :)

The Diamond Age was OK, not as good as Snow Crash, but you must read Cryptonomicon. I have the Barocque Cycle, but I haven't made the time to crack the covers yet.

I've also enjoyed Simon Singh's books (Fermat's Enigma and The Code Book) they are non-fic though.

Posted: 3/15/2006 7:06:29 PM EDT

[#2]

Quoted:
Read all his other books :)

The Diamond Age was OK, not as good as Snow Crash, but you must read Cryptonomicon. I have the Barocque Cycle, but I haven't made the time to crack the covers yet.

I've also enjoyed Simon Singh's books (Fermat's Enigma and The Code Book) they are non-fic though.

+1 on Cryptonomicon ... and I read the first book of the Baroque cycle and it was amazing. I took a hiatus though and haven't read the other two.

Frankly Cryptonomicon should be required reading for all Arfcommers.

Posted: 3/15/2006 7:08:48 PM EDT

[#3]

cryptonomicon is very good. i dont like anything else he has written. the boruqe stuff is just an endless dialog of traveling with no plot at all..

if you like that genre i highly recommonend gibson, neuromancer, difference engine and others....

Posted: 3/15/2006 7:11:02 PM EDT

[#4]

Quoted:
if you like that genre i highly recommonend gibson, neuromancer, difference engine and others....

Keep going. What others? I'll probably pick up Neuromancer next. Have you read Altered Carbon? I've seen a few good comments about it.

Posted: 3/15/2006 7:52:25 PM EDT

[#5]

I'm getting in on this conversation.

You already have heard some good suggestions--I really like all of Stephenson's work, and I would recommend reading all of Gibson's work too.

There are several others, but you should have at least several weeks of reading material with just Stephenson's books.

You might want to take notes...characters, plots, that sort of thing. He weaves a complicated web.

Jim

Posted: 3/15/2006 8:44:58 PM EDT

[#6]

Cryptonomicon is his best. It's structured to play to his strengths as a writer, cutting between multiple eras and places in short bursts.

I was disapointed by the Baroque Cycle. Stephenson does best close to home when writing about modern scientists and nerds.

Posted: 3/15/2006 9:05:58 PM EDT

[#7]

As said by others, Cryptomonicon. This book is AWESOME.

Snow Crash is freakin' amazing, especially when you look at what year it was written in.
Fun book.

Different author, but it seems that people who like stuff like Stephenson also like the book American Gods. It isn't Sci-Fi or cyberpunk, and it helps if you're really up on your world religions and mythologies.

Posted: 3/16/2006 1:08:37 AM EDT

[#8]

Quoted:
As said by others, Cryptomonicon. This book is AWESOME.

Snow Crash is freakin' amazing, especially when you look at what year it was written in.
Fun book.

Different author, but it seems that people who like stuff like Stephenson also like the book American Gods. It isn't Sci-Fi or cyberpunk, and it helps if you're really up on your world religions and mythologies.

+1 on Neil Gaiman's American Gods. Very well-written. Not even slightly computer-geekish, though; it's strictly a fantasy novel.

If you're after more engineering-related stuff, Crichton's Airframe is pretty good. It was based on a real-life incident involving a Cathay Pacific flight, IIRC.

Posted: 3/16/2006 3:04:16 AM EDT

[#9]

Quoted:
+1 on Neil Gaiman's American Gods. Very well-written. Not even slightly computer-geekish, though; it's strictly a fantasy novel.

If you're after more engineering-related stuff, Crichton's Airframe is pretty good. It was based on a real-life incident involving a Cathay Pacific flight, IIRC.

I've read plenty of fantasy and hard sci-fi, but Snow Crash was the first cyberpunk I'd read and I want more like it.

Posted: 3/16/2006 3:11:30 AM EDT

[#10]

A huge +1 on Cryptonomicon. A truly great read. Bobby Shaftoe kicks ass.

Posted: 3/16/2006 3:41:25 AM EDT

[#11]

Cryptonomicon is good, and I enjoyed the Baroque Cycle as well, but if you're looking for a similar feel to Snow Crash, it won't get much closer than Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive from William Gibson.

Posted: 3/16/2006 4:01:49 AM EDT

[#12]

R.E.A.S.O.N.

Posted: 3/16/2006 4:09:54 AM EDT

[#13]

Look up Tad Williams. He has a series that is pretty awesome, "the Otherland" which is a 4 volume set, and really could go on for a long time.

Great books, and his style is very engrossing.

Geoff

Posted: 3/16/2006 4:25:46 AM EDT

[#14]

Quoted:
I've read plenty of fantasy and hard sci-fi, but Snow Crash was the first cyberpunk I'd read and I want more like it.

Oh, cyberpunk? Bruce Bethke's Headcrash would be your best bet. I particularly liked the ProctoPod.

Also look up Bruce Sterling, William Gibson, and Tom Maddox. There are some others, but I'd have to be in a decent bookstore to look for their names among the titles.

Snow Crash was a rare bird in cyberpunk. The earlier stuff was pretty much all gritty techno-killer stuff in the same vein as The Terminator. Gibson's short stories (collected in Burning Chrome) were much better than his novels IMHO.

ETA: You might also take a look at Rudy Rucker's stuff ("Software", "Hardware", "Wetware"), but personally I never much liked it.

Posted: 3/16/2006 9:48:45 PM EDT

[#15]

All of Neal Stephenson's stuff that I've read has been very good.

Posted: 3/16/2006 10:36:31 PM EDT

[#16]

Quoted:

Snow Crash was a rare bird in cyberpunk. The earlier stuff was pretty much all gritty techno-killer stuff in the same vein as The Terminator. Gibson's short stories (collected in Burning Chrome) were much better than his novels IMHO.

Well, some people feel that Snow Crash (arcane trivia: "underline" is an old printers mark that means the printer is supposed to put the text into Italics) and others like it are "post-cyberpunk" as opposed to works like Gibson's.

Good article:

slashdot.org/features/99/10/08/2123255.shtml

Bud, from Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age, is a classic cyberpunk protagonist. An aggressive, black-leather clad criminal loner with cybernetic body augmentations (including a neurolinked skull gun), Bud makes his living first as a drug runner's decoy, then by terrorizing tourists for money.

All of which goes a long way toward explaining why his ass gets wasted on page 37 of a 455 page novel.

Welcome to the postcyberpunk era.

Also: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postcyberpunk

Which probably explains why I prefer stuff like Snow Crash to Neuromancer.

Anyway, if you're looking for not only stuff to read but stuff to watch I'd also check out the movie Ghost in the Shell and the two Stand Alone Complex series.

Posted: 3/16/2006 10:41:54 PM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:
Quoted:
+1 on Neil Gaiman's American Gods. Very well-written. Not even slightly computer-geekish, though; it's strictly a fantasy novel.

If you're after more engineering-related stuff, Crichton's Airframe is pretty good. It was based on a real-life incident involving a Cathay Pacific flight, IIRC.

I've read plenty of fantasy and hard sci-fi, but Snow Crash was the first cyberpunk I'd read and I want more like it.

I'm not sure I'd call American Gods a "fantasy" novel. It's....something else. I mean, it's "Fantasy" but not your typical "gee, I'd rather be reading Tolkein fantasy"

To get you started: Guy gets out of prison. Guy finds out his wife is dead. Guy meets a guy named "Mr. Wednesday" who offers him a bodyguard job. Guy finds out that Wednesday is Odin. Guy finds out there's manifistations of every mythology that ever came to America exists everywhere. Odin's recruiting them to fight a battle against "new gods" like Media, Technology, etc. Goes from there. Fascinating stuff.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Computer Geeks: I just read Snow Crash and loved it. What next?

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