OFF TOPIC Snow Crash [was Re: Hello World]

[alex23]

On 24/12/2014 9:50 PM, alister wrote:
> what feels like 3 or 4 chapters in & it is still trying to set the scene,
> an exercise in stylish writing with very little content so far.
> even early scifi written for magazines on a per word basis were not this
> excessive (because if they were they would probably have been rejected or
> seriously edited).

My personal theory is that Stephenson polishes and polishes the first 
few chapters until the whole creative process really engages - the first 
chapter is especially overwritten - and then tears through the novel in 
an increasingly unrefined way, until it arrives at its anticlimactic 
conclusion. He was notorious for a while for not providing satisfying 
endings to his books.

> Hopefully it will finally settle down & amend my current impression.

SNOW CRASH doesn't, I'm afraid, but Stephenson himself does as a writer. 
CRYPTONOMICON is a great geek read. ANATHEM is a fantastic piece of SF 
(possibly my favourite of his) THE SYSTEM OF THE WORLD is an amazing 
accomplishment and really shows that modern infotech didn't spring out 
of nothing like Venus from the foam.