Current read
Right now I'm about 2/3rds of the way through Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, an absolutely fascinating book. What can I say? I love this guy's stuff. Before starting it, I read about 5 pages of Michael Crichton's Disclosure. The two were written about a year apart (Snow Crash: 1992, Disclosure: 1993). But there is no comparison.
Don't get me wrong - I've read a number of Crichton books and found them thoroughly enjoyable (read Jurassic Park the summer I was layed up in bed with a herniated disk).
Both ostensibly had computers as part of their plot stuff. The Crichton book sounded like your average business intrigue techno-thriller. Stephenson's starts out with virtual reality universes, then moves on to funky Scientology-esque religion (founded by, get this: L. Bob Rife) and ancient Sumerian cult religions using lingustic viruses that leave the afflicted speaking in tongues.
How cool is that?
Snow Crash is full of what the writer's group I (now) belong to call info dumps -- long sections that dump information on the reader. But they are well written and interesting. Something I need to learn how to do more successfully.
Like Cryptonomicon (also a great book, and full of info dumps), Snow Crash is written in the present tense, which gives the prose a somewhat breathless quality, but works.
Great stuff.
Don't get me wrong - I've read a number of Crichton books and found them thoroughly enjoyable (read Jurassic Park the summer I was layed up in bed with a herniated disk).
Both ostensibly had computers as part of their plot stuff. The Crichton book sounded like your average business intrigue techno-thriller. Stephenson's starts out with virtual reality universes, then moves on to funky Scientology-esque religion (founded by, get this: L. Bob Rife) and ancient Sumerian cult religions using lingustic viruses that leave the afflicted speaking in tongues.
How cool is that?
Snow Crash is full of what the writer's group I (now) belong to call info dumps -- long sections that dump information on the reader. But they are well written and interesting. Something I need to learn how to do more successfully.
Like Cryptonomicon (also a great book, and full of info dumps), Snow Crash is written in the present tense, which gives the prose a somewhat breathless quality, but works.
Great stuff.
Comments