Who is Neal Stephenson? Neal Stephenson usually writes science fiction, but on occasion he has dabbled in historical fiction, non-fiction, and in changing the world.
I blame “Saeba Ryo” – my friend who once said “why don’t you read Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. I think you’ll like it.” Boy did I! Reading that one book started my minor obsession and I have since consumed many more of Neal Stephenson’s books. As he writes others, and I plan to read and eventually review the rest of his books in the near future. They have been such worthy investment of my time that I cannot help but recommend him to everyone.
Authors have always helped to shape my view of the world. J.R.R. Tolkien, Richard Adams, Harry Harrison, Douglas Adams, Andre Norton, and many others provided a feast for my imagination as a youth. However, Stephenson gave substance to the vague ideas that were rattling around in my head and drove them to places beyond my imagination. Stephenson belongs to that rare breed of SciFi writer who doesn’t rely upon some magical technology for his stories. Instead, he peels back the curtain on scientific progress and brings us a glimpse of what life could become very, very soon. Peter Suderman of Reason.com recently wrote a wonderful recap of Stephenson’s career aptly titled: If We Told You Neal Stephenson Invented Bitcoin, Would You Be Surprised? Bitcoin. Alexa. Internet avatars. Neal Stephenson wrote these into his stories years before the world caught up and we could access these items anywhere but in his books. And these are the least mind-bending concepts in his repertoire.
Before I lose track and dive too deeply into talking about his books, I would be remiss not to mention exactly how Neal Stephenson is changing the world. As mentioned in a previous column about memes, ideas fight for space in our heads, and seek to spread themselves. Literary fiction tends to be a very effective way to spread ideas since readers implant the ideas from the author directly into their own brains. Neal Stephenson’s stories not only implant ideas, they have made him an authority on future technology. Because of this, he is currently or has been involved in the following real-life efforts to shape the future (which you can also read about on Stephenson’s website):
- Blue Origin – Stephenson was brought on as the first employee in 1999 for Jeff Bezos’ space exploration company and Stephenson investigated possible alternatives to sending rockets into space until he amicably parted in 2006.
- IV Labs – Stephenson was a part-time consultant from 2007-2010 investigating ideas in geoengineering, food, and medical devices.
- Chefsteps – More of a bystander than an active participant, Stephenson has appeared in their early cooking videos and collaborated on science-based cooking exploits.
- Subutai Corporation – Stephenson founded a company to help produce ‘transmedia’ properties (books, games, and filmed entertainment) based upon a common core of IP. It is responsible for his collaborative works: Mongoliad and Cimarronin.
- Magic Leap – Stephenson is the Chief Futurist of Magic Leap which is working on spatial computing which is used in various VR applications. They currently have released Magic Leap One which is a headset that overlays computer images over the real world and incorporates spatial audio.
This is a very long way to say – I’m not the only one who finds Stephenson to be a remarkable person.
Neal Stephenson will be releasing two new books this summer: Fall; or, Dodge in Hell: A Novel and Atmosphæra Incognita. My enthusiasm is bubbling over. I need to share my joy of Stephenson’s writing with the world. In fine detail! I had planned to write a full review of each of his books and create a classic internet ‘shrine’ to Neal Stephenson’s works on this website before his first book came out… on June 4, 2019. It’s really difficult to turn my ambitions into words in a timely manner! I have since tempered my ambitions to writing this intro, launching my rankings (see below), and writing a thorough review of each of his books over the next few months. Hopefully a few of you will be inspired to sample his work!
Meanwhile, we’ll start with a ranking of his books on the following dimensions:
Fun and Substance has already been covered previously in this blog (I was planning ahead!), but Mind Bending is new. Mind Bending is quite rare. It basically is what happens to Neo in The Matrix when he takes the red pill – his view of the world is shattered. Of course, Stephenson doesn’t accomplish this with every meme he introduces, so there is a spectrum. Some ideas are so simple, I can cover them in a sentence or two. Some ideas are so vast, that you do not even realize that he has been sneaking them up on you, and then you realize that they have been developing for 500 pages! Some books, such as Ananthem are so full of Mind Bending ideas that it makes the book difficult to read. After all, he starts that book by using words that don’t exist in English without any explanation and we have to figure out what is going on as the story progresses. Good fun.
For now, I’ll have to content myself with the ranking, but as I add each book review, I’ll populate the rankings with a short blurb that explains why the book qualifies for its position. I’ll avoid spoilers as much as I can, but I may hint at a few things that happen early in the books when appropriate.
Neal Stephenson’s works would make very interesting movies or TV shows, but like the Harry Potter universe, there is an extreme likelihood that the movie version would be a superficial summary of the novels. Still, I for one would be very excited to see Stephenson’s creations known as far and wide as possible!