Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

UncleJulz t1_jd8nlxy wrote

I’ve read the series years ago. I would say they’re not bad but certainty not up there with some of my favorites. 6/10.

5

fn0000rd OP t1_jd8nwbh wrote

It isn’t rocket science, but I just spent an entire year reading Neal Stephenson, so a page-turner was very welcome.

7

Mingey_FringeBiscuit t1_jd8vcu3 wrote

Was that just for the Baroque Trilogy or all spent on Anathem?

3

Darathin t1_jd994i6 wrote

I never finished the Baroque Trilogy, but finished Anathem in a week and then reread it a couple years later. Despite loving everything else Stephenson wrote, The Baroque Cycle felt like pulling my own teeth, with rare interjections of fun storytelling and compelling plots. It dragged me through the first book and almost to the end of the second, but I burned out and never returned. I still sometimes think about Anathem's quantum reality interpretation, how it compares to Dune's golden path, and the implications of being able to visualize such things such that you can affect them within the remaining set of probabilities.

5

Mingey_FringeBiscuit t1_jd9a5i7 wrote

I was just joshing about how dense those two works are. I’ve read the Baroque Trilogy 4-5 times, but There are large parts of “Quicksilver”, mainly about math, that I find myself skimming when I read it again.

1

zephyr220 t1_jdd8ybw wrote

The Baroque Cycle is up there with my favorites, but I cannot imagine reading the entire trilogy 5 times.

Would love to watch it as a movie or tv series, though, if that were possible.

2

UncleJulz t1_jd8o2qz wrote

Oh, agreed on that. Always need a palate cleanser sometimes.

1

gigarob t1_jd8o5sp wrote

I really liked the series. Some really great plot twists as you delve deeper into the storyline.

1

Dhh05594 t1_jd96ijj wrote

Wool is a good way to detox Stephenson.

I know people love his work but I hate it. He comes across to me as someone who thinks he's smarter than everyone else and if you disagree with him, you are an idiot. His books are so boring and only seem to pick up at the end because the first 3/4 of the book is so boring that anything is better.

0

fn0000rd OP t1_jd9knc9 wrote

I see how you could feel that way, but he's written 2 of my favorite books ever, Anathem and Cryptonomicon.

2

zephyr220 t1_jdd8e7s wrote

Definitely a polarizing author. I feel like he knows he is nerdier than everyone else, though. Not intellectually superior. Like he researches the crap out of things to write niche books for himself and other semi-autistic weirdos that would bore the normies.

1

rastafunion t1_jd8xi2x wrote

I read the series and have absolutely no recollection of any of it. Not even the genre, much less the plot.

3

lyonaria t1_jd9fvah wrote

Yeah, I can't really place a lot of details, but it all amalgamates with so many other post apocalyptic stories of a similar theme.

1

Mumbleton t1_jd90qcy wrote

Maybe 7/10 here. I think it tails off in the later books but first is solid.

2