Please reply your take when you are 99% of the way through
I had the exact same thought. There is no feeling like the frustration of a disappointing ending after being engrossed in a Neal Stephenson book.
When they were paper books at least you could throw them across the room. Now that would break my phone.
I haven't been disappointed by the endings of his more recent novels: Cryptonomicon, Anathem, Seveneves. (I did not enjoy time spent on REAMDE, that being the only exception.)
Of those 3 I was only somewhat happy with Anathem. I couldn't finish REAMDE and Seveneves convinced me that I may not read another one of his books again, unless it debuts to unanimous critical acclaim or something similar. I thought the ending of Cryptonomicon was pretty weak but the rest of the novel leading up to it was so fantastic that I didn't care. Honestly I found the Baroque Cycle to have the best ending of any of his works, and I would describe it as the one time I was happy with both the journey and the destination of a Stephenson novel.
Of those three I was initially least interested in reading Anathem. Maybe as a result, I was most pleasantly surprised by it. Agree that none of these compare to the Baroque Cycle.
Seveneves was frustrating because he spent hundreds of pages setting up a premise worthy of an entire lifetime’s worth of books and then just...stopped. Any other author would write that book and be set for life. Neal Stephenson has no time for that and just moves on to the next pile of ideas in his notebook.
I've devoured several of his books multiple times but could not finish REAMDE.
Yeah, I kinda forced myself through that one. Not sure it was a good decision.
I read Reamde after Dodge and it made a lot more sense
That's interesting. I haven't read Dodge. Thanks!
It's definitely a prequel (REAMDE, that is) but you can actually see the story of Dodge taking shape through it. Having said that, Dodge could have been about 300 pages too long..!
Share your frustration. This one did not disappoint me though
Re:Unbroken Enigma Message
by InTheArena on Monday February 01, 2021 @10:43PM
(#25997234)
I loved the ending to the baroque cycle, but otherwise. Yeah. This.
It's .. fine.
To me NS books are not much about the plot though. I'm floored how many things that guy knows and how creatively he connect them.
That's true, I don't even remember the ending to Snow Crash which I read some ~6 years ago. The unraveling premise that comes about in the ~3rd quarter of the book is what stuck with me. Think it'll be the same for Cryptonomicon.
Re:Unbroken Enigma Message
by LMYahooTFY on Sunday February 07, 2021 @12:37AM
(#26052927)
I've finished it. I thoroughly loved it. I don't want to go into any spoiling detail if you haven't read it?
It's only been some hours, so I'm honestly still processing a lot of it. I'll definitely be rereading it. It's considerably grander in scale than Snow Crash, his only other Novel I've read so far, but I'm quite excited to read his other novels.
It's one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. Perhaps the most.
I very highly recommend it, though I imagine much of HN's audience has done so or is at least aware of it.