(Untitled)

[nannyo]

Things which please me:

• tissues with lotion (my poor poor nose)


• 2 ducks having a very cautious and chatty bath in the river at keighley as I walked to work from the train station


• being a bit more relaxed at work after the OMGOMGOMG things have been swept out the way


• my lovely knitter friends coming to my house for a wonderful evening of chat

Comments

[nannyo]

I liked some of the characters in the Cryptonomicon, but got really frustrated with the end of that too. It was better than his other endings, but yeah, I still felt it suffered from "here I am discussing an idea, and I will use the ideas to push the characters around". I just wish he would spend less effort on exploring a notion, and more on actual real plot, or that he gave up, and wrote non-fiction. I imagine he could do that in a really sparkling and interesting way.

Oh, I'm about half way through, and just realised that after Snow Crash, I haven't really liked many of his books too much. I loved half of the Cryptonomicon, but the second half spoiled it.

Still, I do want to know what happens, so it can't be THAT bad...right?

[nmg]

He's only written one piece of non-fiction that I'm aware of: In the Beginning was the Command Line.

[davegodfrey]

I liked it, but it wasn't the Baroque Cycle. Which I utterly adored, and the ending to that didn't feel rushed.

But I like China Mieville too, and he isn't great at writing endings either. Perdido Street Station just seems to stop, which is a shame.

[nannyo]

but whyyyy? Come on, sway me, reclaim it for me with what makes it a good read for you... Convince me that it isn't just Stephenson in love with his own cleverness AGAIN.

[davegodfrey]

Its the world-building that I most liked. Neo-Victorian nanotechnology steampunk. What's not to like about that? If the whole thing had just been a travelogue I'd have been happy. Similarly the Baroque Cycle is set in an episode of history that I'm fascinated by (dawn of the industrial revolution, and the foundation of the Royal Society and the Enlightenment.)

Similarly Scar Night (I forget who its by) isn't the greatest book in the world, but its set on a city suspended by chains over a near-bottomless pit, ruled over by a bunch of monks.

[nannyo]

See it's the world building that has kept me going, but now we've reached the part about the crumbling chinese interior and the enormo ships filled with baby girls, my delight in the worlds has been a bit distracted. Do really like the idea of all the different clades, but am finding it harder to be swept along.

It's interesting, cos the last thing I read was Scott Lynch's two "Gentleman Bastards" books, and they are wonderful works of worldbuilding, which never get me to challenge the make up of it and they are just as fantastical (although fantasty rather than SF, but I make less distinction between genres than most), so I wonder what it is about the writing that takes me in completely with one, and not so much with the other?

[nmg]

re: Stephenson, it clearly won't be too surprisingly to you if I confirm that The Diamond Age also has an "and they all went home and had tea" ending. It's almost (but not quite) as full of exposition as Snow Crash, which is a good thing however.

Sadly, he went on to write Cryptonomicon (overall good, but too much exposition and in need of editing) and the Baroque Cycle (needed editing with a chainsaw to get rid of the flab, the anachronistic geekboy wisecrackery, the excessive multiple viewpoints, and the self-indulgence). I couldn't bring myself to finish TBC (having previously had a bad experience with Peter Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy that left me wanting that part of my life back).

[nannyo]

yeah, there are wierd little editing things in my copy of the Diamond Age too. Poor!