REAMDE by Neal Stephenson

Just finished reading Stephenson's 1000-something page novel, REAMDE, which was amazing. (Excellent overview by Colin here: http://blogenburyisreading.blogspot.com/2011/12/neal-stephenson-reamde.html?m=1).

Stephenson has the impressive ability to weave together a host of characters and circumstances which, in the hands of a lesser author, would feel they had been chosen by a random word generator: jihadists, MMORPG, computer virus, British spy, Russian mafia, ski resort, Wikipedia. Well, maybe they do have a theme: it sounds like a James Bond movie, but without the glamour, and set against the new realities of postmodernity: the digital age and the international War on Terror.

Stephenson is truly a great author: each section of the book is told from the perspective of one of a handful of key characters, and each has a distinctive and authentic tone. Although the book plays like an action movie and largely examines the meaning of life as experienced in the scopes of a rifle, the detailed attention to psychology and the richness of the world feel (almost) Tolstoyan. (Making the Acknowledgments page quite interesting, since he lists areas of expertise, such as guns, which are seamlessly integrated into the plot, yet evidently draw heavily upon the knowledge of others.)

Although set in the present (near future?) and so less earthshatteringly visionary than The Diamond Age, I preferred this to Snow Crash and definitely recommend.

Stephenson's Novels

• The Big U (1984)
• Zodiac (1988)
• Snow Crash (1992)
• Interface (1994) 
• The Diamond Age: or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (1995)
• The Cobweb (1996) 
• Cryptonomicon (1999)
• The Baroque Cycle
• Quicksilver (2003), volume I
• The Confusion (2004), volume II
• The System of the World (2004), volume III
• Anathem (2008)
• The Mongoliad (2010–2012)
• Reamde + Colin's review (2011)

Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash

Stephenson has rapidly become one of my very favorite, if not all time favorite, authors. Snow Crash is so incredible - Stephenson's vision of the future is a rarity in its clarity, depth, and originality. The overpopulated earth has become a trashy wasteland, and the technological/economic elite have essentially moved to a digital existence, most often "goggled in" to the virtual reality of the Metaverse, where your avatar can move around and conduct business in the same way as on earth. Hackers, especially the samurai-sword wielding protagonist (named Hiro Protagonist), have the upper hand in a landscape they can control. However, the intersection between man and machine, embodied particularly in the hackers' binary-acccomodating neural pathways, has led to the dangerous potential for computer viruses to infect the user's mind. This unique vision has even more resonance given Google's recent announcement that they are developing glasses which will project a virtual reality and other information over the real world. This novel's astounding scope encompasses the exploration of memes, Glossolalia, drugs, viruses, and religion, which are depicted as being basically synonymous. A wonderful page-turner!

The Pattern

This gripping page-turner, currently available as a Kindle or Nook eBook, was written by JT Kalnay, the very accomplished and very interesting husband of my first graduate student, Dr. Susann Brady-Kalnay. JT was trained as a computer engineer, worked as a professor, then as a systems architect at Merrill Lynch, then went to law school, specialized in patent law and now has his own patent law firm - oh yeah, he's also a certified rock-climbing instructor and competes in ironman triathlons. Jeez.

(Here's an interview with him about the book).

Well, this book, about a mysterious virus-induced glitch in airplane software, will make your skin crawl - I had to fly on a bumpy flight from Rochester to Detroit right after finishing the book, and I was not a happy camper. Download onto your phone and enjoy a great read while waiting in lines!!