Can you extract me from my plastic fantasy?

[venta]

Book #2 (as recommended by lathany):

Comments

[pm215]

I also thought Diamond Age's ending was a bit weak -- my impression is that Stephenson has been getting better at endings as he goes along, but his earlier books have a tendency to just stop rather than actually having an ending...

[bateleur]

Unfortunately he's simultaneously been getting worse at editing. Zodiac, Snow Crash and Diamond Age are all brilliant, Cryptonomicon is bloated and rambling and The Baroque Cycle completes with J.K. Rowling for excess length. :-/

[venta]

My assumption with JK Rowling was that she was always crap at editing, but as her books became massive best sellers she basically got to overrule her editor more often. A sort of authorial "who's the queen?"

Not sure if the theory holds up for Neal Stephenson. He's getting better known, but I doubt he's the runaway cash cow JK Rowling was.

[bateleur]

A sort of authorial "who's the queen?"

Ha! Love that image!

[beckyl]

I've enjoyed Reamde, which I picked up very cheap in a Kindle sale promotion. I'd recommend that one quite happily. Seemed to have a better 'ending' structure too.

[al_fruitbat]

At the expense of having a plot thrown together out of improbable coincidences and moronic character behaviour...

I like Stephenson generally, but if Reamde is how he approaches action-thrillers, he should go back to gnarly SF :-)

[beckyl]

Well, yes, but moronic behaviour is fairly common for people in general, and I dropped it firmly in the 'entertaining light reading' section, which makes me vastly more tolerant of improbable co-incidences. Note I used 'Enjoyable' not 'great writing' and I may have been influenced by the net outlay of £1.09 for it, which I felt was an emminently good value proposition for entertainment on a train journey.

[al_fruitbat]

Ah. I paid full whack for the hardback and had been eagerly expecting 'The Next Neal Stephenson' when it arrived. It is probably worth about £1.09 :-)

[ceb]

*hands you 50p for the boy meter*

[venta]

Blimey, that threw me! You may have a slightly baffled-looking kudo :)

[lathany]

Glad you liked it overall and that the ending did not live down to expectations.

I think that Paladin of Souls is a better book and I like the central character more (Ista). But Curse comes first and I feel you have to read them in order. I don't know whether it's Paladin or Hunt that is also on your list.

[venta]

I did like it! And yes, it's Paladin of Souls which is also on the list. Recommended by shui_long, I think.

[lathany]

I did like it!

:-)

I forgot to say above - I know what you mean about the deus ex bit. She (Bujold, I mean) can be rather prone to that.

[venta]

Although it was deus ex in the most literal of senses, it did fit nicely into the world. So it felt reasonably justified.

What bugs me is when authors produce a thing they have never hitherto mentioned to get a character out of a hole. Or use a really tenuous bit of linguistic legalism ("no man born of woman", indeed!)

[ar_gemlad]

I agree with you about Sabriel - I wanted more character for Sabriel! I'm afraid you might be a little disappointed with the sequels, as they're not as involved with the character. They're still worth reading, but they didn't quite hit the spot for me.

[venta]

Hurrah!

Well, I mean boo about the sequels, but hurrah that at least one other sentient being agrees with me ;)