Godsdamn, but I love Neal Stephenson
I mean, leaving aside Anathem's timeline and glossary and appendixes of side proofs (with diagrams), there are just lovely little bits, always, like
"I always tend to assume there's an infinite amount of money out there."
"There might as well be, but most of it gets spent on pornography, sugar water, and bombs. There is only so much that can be scraped together for particle accelerators."
or
"I can't predict the future," I said, "but based on what little I know so far, I'm afraid it has to be massive adventure or nothing."
"Great!"
"Probably the kind of adventure that ends in a mass burial."
That quieted her down a little bit. But after a while, she said: "Do you need transportation? Tools? Stuff?"
"Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs," I said. "We have a protractor."
"Okay, I'll go home and see if I can scrounge up a ruler and a piece of string."
And that's not even touching the 6-page Socratic dialogue revolving around nerve-gas-farting pink dragons.
I'm taking a while to get through it (I'm just barely over a third of the way through), but I'm enjoying it thoroughly. I've talked to a couple people who were intimidated by it; please don't be. Way more accessible than Quicksilver.
"I always tend to assume there's an infinite amount of money out there."
"There might as well be, but most of it gets spent on pornography, sugar water, and bombs. There is only so much that can be scraped together for particle accelerators."
or
"I can't predict the future," I said, "but based on what little I know so far, I'm afraid it has to be massive adventure or nothing."
"Great!"
"Probably the kind of adventure that ends in a mass burial."
That quieted her down a little bit. But after a while, she said: "Do you need transportation? Tools? Stuff?"
"Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs," I said. "We have a protractor."
"Okay, I'll go home and see if I can scrounge up a ruler and a piece of string."
And that's not even touching the 6-page Socratic dialogue revolving around nerve-gas-farting pink dragons.
I'm taking a while to get through it (I'm just barely over a third of the way through), but I'm enjoying it thoroughly. I've talked to a couple people who were intimidated by it; please don't be. Way more accessible than Quicksilver.