Neal Stephenson

Neal Stephenson
"Why is the Deliverator so equipped? Because people rely on him. He is a role model. This is America. People do whatever the f**k they feel like doing, you got a problem with that?"
-Snow Crash

In 1992, the then relatively unknown writer Neal Stephenson wrote a book that was to become one of the most important techno-culture sci-fi novels of the 90s - "Snow Crash". It was critically acclaimed and hailed as "The most dazzling debut of recent years" by Charles Shaar Murray in Time Out. Which was quite funny really as this was the author's third book (the first - "The Big U" - vanished without a trace, and his second - "Zodiac: The Eco-Thriller" - is said to have a cult following amongst water-pollution-control engineers and radical environmentalists, although it was ignored by most everyone else).

That little detail aside, however, "Snow Crash is a book that lives up to its reputation and is, for my money, one of the most rewarding sci-fi novels that I have read for a long time. Technically complex, it explains itself well enough to be followed by the reader and puts forward some interesting ideas and theories about everything from cyber-society to religion. It is also a damn good story with plenty of wry humour and a brilliant ending where all the loose plot threads get successfully accounted for.

Since then, Stephenson has written other novels but the best of those in my opinion are the two he wrote with another (nameless) author under the name of Stephen Bury. Both are taunt yet funny political thrillers that, if half of what they suggest are true, really make you worry about the North American political and federal systems. Of the two, "Interface" I feel is slightly better than "The Cobweb" simply because I find the ideas slightly sharper and funnier.

(Please note, all pictures displayed here are not mine are used without permission of their owners because I'm recommending that you go out and buy more of their books. However, should they disapprove, please can they mail me and I'll remove them.)