Neal Stephenson
Neal Stephenson (1959 - ) is a singular writer. His fiction is shelved, for categorical convenience, in science fiction/fantasy here at Whistlestop Bookshop. He has written novels which have transformed the field of science fiction, historical novels which upend conventions of historical parameters, and contemporary novels which embarrass many of the current tropes and concerns of MFA literature. He is also an essayist with a wide range of interests. His breakthrough book was Snow Crash (1992), which coined and conceived the workings of “metaverse.” It also signaled his passion for ancient history, for outsiders, and for how systems work and decay and repair themselves and what they are (or are becoming) after being repaired. Ambitious stuff. And Stephenson is unafraid of Big Ideas.
Reamde
Reamde
“Stephenson has a once-in-a-generation gift: he makes complex ideas clear, and he makes them funny, heartbreaking, and thrilling.”
—Time
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anathem, Neal Stephenson is continually rocking the literary world with his brazen and brilliant fictional creations—whether he’s reimagining the past (The Baroque Cycle), inventing the future (Snow Crash), or both (Cryptonomicon). With Reamde, this visionary author whose mind-stretching fiction has been enthusiastically compared to the work of Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo, Kurt Vonnegut, and David Foster Wallace—not to mention William Gibson and Michael Crichton—once again blazes new ground with a high-stakes thriller that will enthrall his loyal audience, science and science fiction, and espionage fiction fans equally. The breathtaking tale of a wealthy tech entrepreneur caught in the very real crossfire of his own online fantasy war game, Reamde is a new high—and a new world—for the remarkable Neal Stephenson.