Out of interest ...

[coalescent]

Following on from a mutually surprising discussion last weekend:

Poll

Justification in the comments welcomed.

Comments

[secritcrush]

Everything published after snow crash is the answer to part two.

[abrinsky]

Which is close to my answer although I did rather like Diamond Age.

[lamentables]

Yes, I demand ticky boxes for part 2.

[coalescent]

It can't all be equally bad. :p

[abrinsky]

Not fair... wont let me vote for Cryptonomicon and everything that comes after it (and I'll include Anathem even though it sounds great due to its size).

[coalescent]

I've just finished Anathem, and think it's something of a return to form. (Admittedly I haven't read The Confusion and The System of the World yet, but I'm assuming they'll be much the same as Quicksilver.). That said, I count Cryptonomicon as on form, so ...

[abrinsky]

I do so want to like it but.... 935 pages?

(and I have to confess I never got beyond half way with Cryptonomicon)

[coalescent]

935 pages divided into 13 digestible chunks! That's not even a hundred pages a chunk. It's also one, first-person narrative, and I found it to be pretty well paced. The middle third lags a bit, but the first 300 pages and the last 200 are great.

That said ...

[white_hart]

Loved Snow Crash, couldn't finish Cryptonomicon, haven't read any Stephenson since. And it's got to be pretty bad to put me off him completely.

[coalescent]

I wonder whether Stephenson fans divide into early and late? For me, Cryptonomicon is a substantial step up from everything that came before.

[white_hart]

I am half-tempted to give it another go sometime, as I seem to be reading so much faster these days; I think half the problem was that I got completely bogged down and spent about three months reading the first 200-odd pages, and then I simply couldn't face spending the next six months slogging through the rest.

[ex_susumu64]

It is, but the Diamond Age is so much cooler.

[despotliz]

Cryptonomicon-hating wrongheads are everywhere!

(I haven't read Cobweb or The Big U, but I thought Interface was not so great.)

[sinboy]

Loved cobweb. Pure mystery / spy thriller.

[andrewducker]

I bounced off both The Big U and Zodiac.

Snow Crash was ok, Diamond Age was great - and then it kept getting better!

[abigail_n]

The Big U gets points for a) featuring a lesbian relationship as normal, loving, and in some ways the most positive relationship in the book, b) containing a scene of attempted sexual assault in which the potential victim is rescued by another woman, and c) not going over the top with either of these. Given that in later books Stephenson goes for the women-as-hot-superheroes approach, this was a refreshing find. Other than that, though, it's clearly a journeyman novel, and Stephenson hadn't tapped into his grade A material yet while writing it.

[truecatachresis]

I can't easily place a "worst" Stephenson, because I've not actually read one I haven't enjoyed immensely.