Neal Stephenson.

[cosmicfolklore]

It's weird hearing of Stephenson being called Sci-Fi, because I knew him first as a historical fiction writer, and he has co-wrote on many different genres.

 

[chilllucky]

It's from 15 year old interviews now, but I think he just refers to himself as an author of fiction. It's the publishers and booksellers who pigeon hole all his works based on a couple of earlier, popular, genre pieces.

About the spaceship - It's clear to me that Mr. Stephenson does his homework when researching elements that will appear in his stories. I couldn't say if he's keeping up with primary source peer reviewed academic works on engineering and sciences or if he's reading more popular summaries. Either way the science/science-fiction in his works seems plausible to me.

He's just one of many people applying their imaginations and expertise to the project. He wasn't hired by Bezos "to design a spaceship" that would then go straight to the spaceship printer without oversight and review.

 

[mingc]

I do enjoy it when an author connects the dots to make a new creative history and tell a compelling story. Dan Brown did this also, and I enjoy it. The problem, is that we have so many stupid people in the world, that when most read these books, they see these fictional connections of dots and think they are real. There just needs to be a warning label on the cover, similar to the ones telling people not to drink the liquid in your car battery.

Cryptonomicon, Quicksilver and the Mongoliad series were my favs.

The original title of this review by Michael Deacon, published in The Telegraph, was "Don't Make Fun of Renowned Dan Brown": The greatest book review ever written - https://cheeseburgergothic.substack.com/p/the-greatest-book-review-ever-written. Enjoy!

 

[Michigan_Bill]

I did enjoy reamde. Get back to his more mystery genre w
I enjoyed the ideas explored/explained in Seveneves, but cannot forgive the page that just says "five thousand years later..."

Seveneves is his most memorable book for me. But my reaction to that page was exactly the same. "Five thousand years…" Really?