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As good as every other time I've read it, and I think it's still my favorite of Stephenson's novels. "Modern Victorians with ubiquitous nanotechnology create a fancy children's book" doesn't really sound like that fascinating of a concept, but it definitely is. In addition to the oft-mentioned things about Stephenson's writing that always work for me but don't work at all for others — the snark, digressions, and sidetracks — it's his ability to convey highly technical concepts in understandable form, which is highlighted here in some of the stories that the Primer tells, that has always been a big part of the appeal of this book for me.
As tends to be the case, Stephenson spends nearly 1000 pages pouring all sorts of fascinating ideas into my head. Typically dense and fast-paced, connected to several earlier books but entirely standalone, spanning decades or eons (depending on your point of view), and moving from modern social networking culture and its affects on our wider culture to virtual spaces (with some similarities to, but far removed from, those of Snow Crash), creation mythologies, and battles among gods with plenty of stops along the way, Stephenson continues to be one of my favorite current authors.
Not terribly optimistic in its outlook towards humanity’s ability to learn from our mistakes, but an excellent and far-reaching post-apocalyptic tale.
And even though the overall thrust of the tale isn’t terribly optimistic, there’s still enough individual striving for something better, even if long-delayed, and frequent humor throughout, that it manages to avoid being as dreary and depressing as many other post-apocalyptic works are. Definitely well deserving of its recognition.
And even though the overall thrust of the tale isn’t terribly optimistic, there’s still enough individual striving for something better, even if long-delayed, and frequent humor throughout, that it manages to avoid being as dreary and depressing as many other post-apocalyptic works are. Definitely well deserving of its recognition.
A recently discovered longer version of Campbell’s classic novella “Who Goes There” (the source for John Carpenter’s SF/horror film _The Thing_). Holds up well for a late-30s story; still creepy and fun.
Finished off the WTZ series in fine form, wrapping up various plot threads, dealing with villains, and even introducing psychic zombie alligators into the mix. All in all, a very fun series.