Not exactly a review, but a few thoughts on this book at about the halfway point. I kind of lost my enthusiasm for Stephenson’s work sometime after The Diamond Age. I really wanted to like The Baroque Cycle, as I’ve always been interested in the Newton-Liebniz dustup over the invention of calculus, for its time a Microsoft-vs-Apple-scale intellectual property dispute, but I got stuck in the weeds. Stephenson is an acute observer and a diligent researcher, but he often comes dangerously close to the “I’ve suffered for my art, now it’s your turn” narrative anti-pattern. He’s a one-thing-after-another kind of writer, a meticulous sequencer, kind of like a Nicholson Baker with a plot plug-in, and if you like that sort of writing, great.
REAMDE suffers a little from that level of obsessive detail, but for me, it is his most accessible work since The Diamond Age. He’s wrapped a Spy-vs-Spy plot and some great characters around MMOG’s and other 21st Century detritus and the result is a great ride, liberally salted with insightful cultural observations.
Highly recommended.
I love Nick Baker, but Stephenson trying to do Baker gives me the quease. Baroque Cycle was, imo, insufferable.
Was really thinking about README, will nudge it up my list.
Thanks. I needed that. I’ve just ordered my copy after having chewed the worm and deciding to attempt to tolerate his verbosity.
Here is what I’m talking about — writing that bloats a 80K word story into a sprawling mess 3x the size:
“He took the elevator down to a mezzanine level, went into a men’s room, entered a stall, sat on a toilet, and put on the necktie, then tied his shoes.”
There is page after page of this, a soporific rhythm of THIS nuh nuh THIS then nuh nuh THIS then THIS. Coming from a writer of his tremendous skill it just seems lazy and indulgent. How about a little of that writerly sleight of hand that enables you to move your characters around without slaving your readers in lock step to clock time? Fortunately, there is enough really good stuff unfolding to compensate, and the overall read is fast and fun.