Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?

Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by jillesvangurp on Friday December 24, 2021 @03:35AM (#29671607)

I just finished his latest, Termination Shock. Enjoyable and relatively easy for people new to Neal Stephenson. Cryptonomicon is fun all the way through. Anathem is probably his most philosophical book right after the Baroque Cycle. If you enjoy the latter, I'd recommend reading everything the man has ever written.

I'll be honest, the first read of the Baroque Cycle took me some time and I came close to putting it down. I've since re-read it about six or seven times. Most of his books get better when you re-read them.

I'm looking forward to re-reading Termination Shock probably some time next year.

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Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by kart23 on Friday December 24, 2021 @12:45AM (#29670673)

No way! I'm reading it too, on page 116. I read Seveneves a couple years ago and really liked it, so I'm giving this a shot. Seveneves I just couldn't put down, the universe and worldbuilding was really great. I feel like Cryptonomicon is off to a slower start, but hopefully I'll form a more complete opinion as I get through more of it.

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Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by singlow on Thursday December 23, 2021 @10:45PM (#29669915)

I read snowcrash as a teen but Cryptonomicon was my reintroduction to Neal Stevenson as an adult and it got me hooked.

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Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by OnionBlender on Thursday December 23, 2021 @11:02PM (#29670032)

Is it worth the effort? I've picked up snow crash a few times in the past 20 years and found it a hard read. I really want to enjoy it but I find it hard to swallow. I suppose it has been hard because it doesn't take itself seriously. My sci-fi reading history has been:

- several William Gibson novels between 1995-2008 - Most of the ender's game series and home coming from 80's to 2008. - Between 2008 and 2018 I read only 1 novel, which was Ready Player One. - From 2019 to today I've ready 40+ novels: The Expanse, Red Rising, Bobiverse, Planetside, Magic 2.0, Singularity Trap, Vicarious, NPC, Childeren of Time, Project Hail Mary, Fuzzy Nation, Space Between Worlds, The Salvage Crew.

I feel like I've exhausted sci-fi and have been checking out fantasy novels like Riyria. I've been having a hard time finding something new to sink my teeth into. Piranesi was weird but good.

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Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by mylons on Thursday December 23, 2021 @11:13PM (#29670101)

the first chapter of snowcrash is one of my favorite chapters in any book i’ve ever read. the rest of the book is great and goes into some really bizarre territory on how to manipulate humans, as well as looking at the effects of a truly decentralized economy + metaverse. it’s really forward looking and prescient for a book that was written in 1988-91.

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Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by atmosx on Saturday December 25, 2021 @04:29AM (#29681786)

I couldn't get over the fact that "Hiro Protagonist" is the actual _hero_ (and of course) _protagonist_ in the first few chapters. The writing style is good though. AFAIK the first chapter is when the virus takes over a rich and famous friend of Hiro and he has to take part on a sparing battle which ends up quickly. Afterwards the other party finds out Hiro is the stronger character in the metaverse.

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Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by MegaDeKay on Friday December 24, 2021 @11:36AM (#29674982)

Couldn't agree more! That first chapter hooked me harder than anything I have ever read. It would hav been amazing had the entire book held to that pace, but I personally felt it got too bogged down at times in the more philosophical bits. Still a great book on balance, and deserves great credit for its exploration of the metaverse.

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Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by strangus on Thursday December 23, 2021 @11:49PM (#29670338)

The Deliverator belongs to an elite order, a hallowed subcategory....

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Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by wiredfool on Friday December 24, 2021 @04:59AM (#29672193)

I'm so glad I didn't read that book before being a pizza delivery driver.

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Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by quantumJanitor on Thursday December 23, 2021 @11:18PM (#29670134)

Give the Three Body Problem series a try, I think you’ll enjoy it immensely.

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Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by the__alchemist on Thursday December 23, 2021 @11:21PM (#29670151)

I don't think this is in the same league as Snow Crash, or any other Stephenson novel. Learning about parts of 20th century China political history? Cool! The Sci-fi? Makes distractingly little sense. The wire-slicer weapon was pretty cool though!

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Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by Syntheticate on Thursday December 23, 2021 @11:51PM (#29670363)

I found the next two books in the trilogy (The Dark Forest, Death's End) to go much more in depth on the sci-fi aspect; if you're willing to suspend a little disbelief the story is constantly engaging and quite thought-provoking. While the style is different from Stephenson's I think anyone who enjoys Stephenson's books would enjoy the journey and perspective this series offers too!

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Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by the__alchemist on Friday December 24, 2021 @12:02AM (#29670428)

Now I want to read the second!

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Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by _1100 on Thursday December 23, 2021 @11:51PM (#29670354)

I always forget how little actually happens in the first book of the trilogy, and how…earthy(?) it is?

It’s just so small in scope compared to the following books that I forget that its entire appeal is just how unknown the unknowns are and how much potential it sets up for the rest of the story.

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Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by Thersites on Friday December 24, 2021 @05:45AM (#29672477)

Read Revelation Space by Reynolds and Pandora's Star by Hamilton if you feel like you exhausted SciFi. Also check out The Diamond Age by Stephenson and Altered Carbon by Morgan if Snow Crash isn't for you. Stranger in a Strange Land, Fahrenheit 451, and The Martian Chronicles are great golden age SciFi

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Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by Rebelgecko on Friday December 24, 2021 @01:34AM (#29670937)

A protip for Snow Crash is that you can just skip ahead 5-10 pages whenever there's an info dump about Babylonian grammar or the history of herpes simplex. You'll miss a bit, but not much. However if the first chapter doesn't get your interest at least a little piqued you probably won't enjoy the rest of the book any more.

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Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by cben on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @08:58AM (#29794758)

Funny — I've been recently re-leafing through it to find _just_ the Babylonian infodumps. (though I failed at "skip ahead 5–10 pages whenever there is an action scene", because they're too good :-)

For me the blurring of religion/biology/code boundaries was brilliantly interesting (even if factually unconvincing). If you skip these infodumps, consider going back later.

-> for those who like that meta-liguistic angle, Laundry Files series by Charles Stross may be fun. It has some similar "Enochian" language used for programming zombies / magic / etc. (the tone is quite different though, more of a horror comedy, and varies between books as he's parodying different material.)

-> on the "collapse of government" angle, Diamond Age by Stephenson is almost a direct continuation. plus very cool nano-tech. (2nd half has few scenes using humans bodies in a gross way.)

-> if you like a large Quest crossing both physical and intellectual world, well, almost any Stephenson book :)

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Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by singlow on Friday December 24, 2021 @07:45PM (#29679226)

I have reread snow crash since my first read of it as a teen and did not enjoy it as much. I like his newer stuff much more. But at the time, and my state of mind, it was very influential to my view of technology, the internet and society so it has a very special place in my scifi cannon.

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Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by Scarblac on Friday December 24, 2021 @02:57AM (#29671399)

You missed Iain M Banks' Culture novels completely, they are hugely entertaining. Just skip the first for now.

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Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by Thersites on Friday December 24, 2021 @05:46AM (#29672485)

Player Of Games is amazing

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Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by the__alchemist on Thursday December 23, 2021 @11:20PM (#29670147)

Snow Crash is (I think?) his most digestible one! Shortest, at least.

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Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by wrycoder on Saturday December 25, 2021 @09:54PM (#29689246)

Try Reamde!

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Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by wiredfool on Friday December 24, 2021 @05:00AM (#29672200)

Zodiac is really fun(?!) and quick.

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Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by beermonster on Friday December 24, 2021 @05:23AM (#29672354)

I got the audiobook of this recently and have re-started it from chapter 1 a few times after a few chapters. I am really struggling to get into it. I really want to 'get it' as on paper it sounds right up my street. Any advice ? Maybe I should get the actual book?!

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Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by icosahedron on Thursday December 23, 2021 @10:24PM (#29669761)

Yeah, I hope it continues to live up to the hype you've heard. I had a hard letdown, but I hope that doesn't happen for you.

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Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by _1100 on Thursday December 23, 2021 @10:56PM (#29669988)

I tried to read Cryptonomicon as a first introduction to Stephenson. Kept waiting for the good parts, and actually just stopped reading halfway through out of sheer boredom.

A few years later and I read Seveneves. Absolutely fall in love, and read Anathem right after. Loved it too.

To this day I still don’t understand why the first book felt so boring and the others didn’t. To make it worse, when you go looking for a synopsis of Cryptonomicon, everyone is so vague!

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Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by d1str0 on Thursday December 23, 2021 @11:01PM (#29670018)

Check out Snowcrash! I liked Snowcrash but thought Cryptonomicon was incredibly boring as well.

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Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by _1100 on Thursday December 23, 2021 @11:51PM (#29670361)

I’ll have to do this then, thanks!

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Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by mylons on Thursday December 23, 2021 @11:15PM (#29670115)

haha! I felt the same way about Seveneves, although I guess that doesn’t have as much hype. The premise for the opening chapter was so cool, and then the exhaustive descriptions of spaceships and orbital mechanics and what not was just too dry. Maybe I’ll give it another attempt in a few years.

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Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by abraxas on Friday December 24, 2021 @12:19AM (#29670532)

Yeah, I can't get aboard the Stephenson train either. I tried and failed to finish Seveneves for the same reason. I can't believe someone managed to make an end of the world novel this boring.

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Re:Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? by d1str0 on Thursday December 23, 2021 @11:00PM (#29670010)

I stopped halfway through and tried reading the sparknotes to see if anything exciting ends up happening but I ended up getting bored and let down just reading those highlights.

That said, maybe I was expecting something very different. I enjoyed Snowcrash and I enjoyed various sections of Cryptonomicon’s prose, it was just sooooo boring in the end.

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