Great video. Greetings from Columbus Ohio. RU-vid just suggested your channel to me. I listened to Seveneves on Audible several years ago and loved it ! I seem to be alone with that take on the book. I've actually been meaning to listen to it again. I've liked and subscribed, looking forward to seeing more videos from you.
I know Snow Crash is one of the founding cyberpunk novels, but I hated it so so so much. You're right in that it is approachable. I just wish I hadn't. Neuromancer it is not.
The Voyage of the Space Beagle is a classic. Malzberg is an interesting writer and an interesting fella, haven't read Overlay but I'll probably get around to it at some point. I have mixed feelings about Stephenson, I got 800 pages into the 1100+ page Cryptonomicon and DNF'd it. I'm going to go back and start from Stephenson's shorter, earlier works and see if I can get used to his writing before I commit to his newer longer works. Great job discussing and articulating your thoughts here. Great to see another reader and collector of classic and new SF. Looking forward to future videos.
Zodiac, Diamond Age & Snow Crash were enjoyable books. Then something happened to Stephenson - he decided that books needed to be six times longer than necessary. The last I read of his was Cryptonomicon which was his first 900 page yawn fest.
I'd heard about the final third being interesting, which it was ... but probably not enough to justify it. I have read things in the past where the final chapter or even sentence changed my opinion completely... I'm personally more inclined to stick things out
Seveneves is, by far, the worst scifi I have ever read. Like the guy said, first sentence is 'the moon blows up but don't know why'. That right there should have been the point where I lay it down and say nah...fuck this.
As lots of other people have recommended Snow Crash, I won't bother, but I enjoyed it a lot. You might enjoy trying Peter F Hamilton's "The Reality Dysfunction" for something different, but engaging. By the way, when you wave books around, it messes up the focus of your camera 🙂Good post though - will look forward to more.
Thanks for that. Unfortunately I think it's a result of my camera being less than ideal for this kind of content, I hope to buy a new camera at some point
Overlay by Barry N. Malzberg has a really low rating on Goodreads, so I assume it's a good book or at least requires some thought. I need to read more Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash is one of the best books I've read in 2024, even if it's written with a lot of irony gave more food for thought than so many other books I have read in the genre.
That's true but it also only has around 70 ratings so it's difficult to gauge the general feel on this one. I do think it's strange enough to alienate a lot of readers but it's genuinely unique as far as I can tell. I will definitely get to Snow Crash since I love Neuromancer so much and need to delve more into Cyberpunk. I don't necessarily think that Seveneves was bad, it's just 867 pages of telling rather than showing. Thanks for the comment.
By coincidence, I was just gifted a copy of SevenEves. I gave up after around 100 pages. His writing style was fine; but every point he wanted to make, every description he felt a need to provide, took far too long. And life's too short. I'd rather read three better books.
@@SciFiFinds Good question. I'm revisiting classics at the moment. Just finished The Silver Eggheads by Fritz Leiber; not a classic but weirdly prescient fun. Murray Leinster's First Contact is next on my list and then, I think, Bester's The Stars My Destination. Or Martian Time Slip by Philip K. Dick. never read that one, actually, and it looks like fun.
@@rabbitscooter I haven't heard of a couple of those but I have read The Stars My Destination and loved it. On another day it probably could have slotted into my top 10.
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