Reamde by Neal Stephenson
Oct. 13th, 2011 10:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lightreadsThere, treewishes, are you happy now?
Reamde by Neal Stephenson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
You can learn a lot from a Neal Stephenson book. He’s that kind of dude. World War II cryptographics, currency systems, network key encryption, pianos – at the end of one of his thousand pagers, I always know more than I did when I started.
From this book, I learned that Neal Stephenson would like a movie deal, please.
I kid, I kid. Mostly. This is, in fact, a ridiculously engaging transnational techno thriller (not specfic), with that Stephensonian touch for the hilarious, and a gentle, affectionate mockery for everyone from the hipster urban geeks to the ultra-religious survivalist types. The last two hundred pages is one long, tongue-in-cheek joke at the expense of a particular stripe of American conservative post-terror mindset, but it's not at all scathing. There’s a lot of mockery to go around, actually. It’s one of those books that’s a silly, improbable summer blockbuster by way of making fun of silly, improbable summer blockbusters, but it does it with so much zeal and fucking cheek, I just went sure, okay and rolled with it.
I’m pretty sure this is the sort of thing you write to chill out. If you’re the sort of dude who writes a thousand pages to chill out. Which, let’s be honest, Stephenson clearly is. It’s a grand good time, and geeky, and gleeful. But it’s ultimately insubstantial. The sort of book that sustains itself while it’s happening (…and happening …and happening) but that starts to lose some vim on reflection.
It’s no Cryptonomicon, is what I’m saying. But it'd make a pretty good action flick.
Oh, and he still can’t stick a fucking ending. He knows he’s supposed to have one now, at least there’s that?
View all my reviews
treewishes, are you happy now?Reamde by Neal StephensonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
You can learn a lot from a Neal Stephenson book. He’s that kind of dude. World War II cryptographics, currency systems, network key encryption, pianos – at the end of one of his thousand pagers, I always know more than I did when I started.
From this book, I learned that Neal Stephenson would like a movie deal, please.
I kid, I kid. Mostly. This is, in fact, a ridiculously engaging transnational techno thriller (not specfic), with that Stephensonian touch for the hilarious, and a gentle, affectionate mockery for everyone from the hipster urban geeks to the ultra-religious survivalist types. The last two hundred pages is one long, tongue-in-cheek joke at the expense of a particular stripe of American conservative post-terror mindset, but it's not at all scathing. There’s a lot of mockery to go around, actually. It’s one of those books that’s a silly, improbable summer blockbuster by way of making fun of silly, improbable summer blockbusters, but it does it with so much zeal and fucking cheek, I just went sure, okay and rolled with it.
I’m pretty sure this is the sort of thing you write to chill out. If you’re the sort of dude who writes a thousand pages to chill out. Which, let’s be honest, Stephenson clearly is. It’s a grand good time, and geeky, and gleeful. But it’s ultimately insubstantial. The sort of book that sustains itself while it’s happening (…and happening …and happening) but that starts to lose some vim on reflection.
It’s no Cryptonomicon, is what I’m saying. But it'd make a pretty good action flick.
Oh, and he still can’t stick a fucking ending. He knows he’s supposed to have one now, at least there’s that?
View all my reviews
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Date: 2011-10-14 05:48 am (UTC)The most telling thing about the hardcopy is the HUGE font for the author's name and the wackily small font for the, you know, actual title. Marketers, WTF?
Anyway, someday i'll have time to read it. In the meantime, I really enjoy living vicariously through reviews. A guy on Amazon gave it 4 out of 5 stars because while it was probably the best book he will read this year, it's no Cryptonomicon. I'm starting to feel bad for Neal!
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Date: 2011-10-14 04:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-15 02:04 am (UTC)