Snow Crash

[Verruckt]

So I've just finished this, well, cyberpunk masterpiece really and I come to my friends here at the GitP forums to ask you all a question: What's next?
Any suggestions as to other similarly excellent material, by Stephenson or otherwise?

General ravings as to the awesomeness of the book is welcome too.

As for me, I only have one complaint: I swear to ancient Sumer I had an idea for a half Black/half Asian man in a cyberpunk setting who rides a slick as hell motorcycle and wore a pair of katanas his dad brought back from the war. I guess great minds Mary Sue alike :smallfrown:.

[Dhavaer]

My favourite character is definately Ng, but I have no idea how to pronounce his name. Any help?

[kamikasei]

The Diamond Age is arguably set in the future of the same world as Snow Crash, though not as stuffed full of glee. Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle are excellent, but quite different, and huge, so may not be what you're interested in.

Other than that, though, I'm not really a cyberpunk guy. Neuromancer is "the" book, but I disliked it. Oh, I suppose Altered Carbon might count, I thought that was excellent. Its sequel, Broken Angels, was good but not as good, and I haven't read Richard Morgan's other books.

[Verruckt]

My favourite character is definately Ng, but I have no idea how to pronounce his name. Any help?

Mentally I alternated between saying "Ing" and "N-G", it might be Vietnamese but I don't really have an operating knowledge of that language.

[kamikasei]

Oh, and: I'm sure they'll listen to Reason.

[CurlyKitGirl]

Well, who wouldn't listen to Reason when you present it like that?

One of the best bad puns ever.
I was leant this by a friend, thought I wouldn't get into it but I really did. I love the description of Raven as badass.

[Verruckt]

I think that's my favorite part of the book [Hiro's meditation on the nature of being/becoming a badass]

[valadil]

Loved it. The first paragraph is the greatest first paragraph of any book I've ever read.

I also really liked Cryptonomicon. Probably moreso than Snow Crash, though it took me longer to get into. Cryptonomicon manages to be almost as funny without being a comedy, so you end up taking it more seriously.

I'm working on Quicksilver (Baroque cycle #1) right now. I'm almost done with it and still haven't gotten into it yet. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.

[kamikasei]

I'm working on Quicksilver (Baroque cycle #1) right now. I'm almost done with it and still haven't gotten into it yet. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Quicksilver suffers for being the first in a very long trilogy. It's a lot more readable on a second pass when the dozens of names being thrown at you have picked up context from actually doing things or having things done to them in the other books. Although to be honest, you should already be pretty enamoured of Jack's antics.

[TheMuffinThief]

I absolutely loved Snow Crash. The characters, plot - essentially everything amazed me. This is the first book I've read by Stephenson. Are there any other books by him that are similar to Snow Crash (same writing style, etc.) that you would recommend to me?

[Stormthorn]

I pronounced Ng as 'nig' (think Mig fighter planes) but with the 'i' bit off into a little 'eh' sound in my throat.

Good book.

Considering the authors age the 30 year old dude having sex with a 16(17?) year old was a little odd but whatever.

I loved Reason.

[WalkingTarget]

Ng is pronounced as the IPA [ŋ̩] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velar_nasal).

Say the word "ping". Chances are that you don't fully enunciate the "g" at the end, but even if you do, thing about leaving it off. The pronunciation doesn't suddenly become "pin"; the value of the letter "n" in the two words is different (think about where your tongue touches the roof of your mouth when you say either of them). It's weird to see Ng as a name in English-speaking countries as this sound doesn't happen at the beginning of English words (that I'm aware of).

Anyway, more on-topic.

Y.T. - Hiro Protagonist. What a stupid name.
Hiro - Yeah, but you'll never forget it.

:smallbiggrin:

[kamikasei]

I pronounced Ng as 'nig' (think Mig fighter planes) but with the 'i' bit off into a little 'eh' sound in my throat.

Apparently it is the consonant 'ng (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ng)' as in English 'sing', but pronounced on its own. I... don't know how you'd do that. Precede it with as neutral a vowel sound as possible, I guess. (Backed up by: "It is sometimes romanized as Ang, Eng, Ing and Ong in the United States and Ung in Australia.")

[WalkingTarget]

Apparently it is the consonant 'ng (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ng)' as in English 'sing', but pronounced on its own. I... don't know how you'd do that. Precede it with as neutral a vowel sound as possible, I guess. (Backed up by: "It is sometimes romanized as Ang, Eng, Ing and Ong in the United States and Ung in Australia.")

You say it on its own the same way you go "Mmmmm" when you think of something delicious only the important part is that your tongue is touching the roof near the back of the mouth instead of having your lips closed (for "n" by itself the tongue touches near the teeth, in all of these what's important is where in your mouth the airflow is being blocked off and forced through the nose). Consonants that include airflow during pronunciation (i.e. everything that isn't a stop like d, t, k, etc.) don't require vowels to pronounce them, they just rarely get written that way.

The ruler of Omicron Persei VIII is named Lrrr, which is a valid spelling when you think about it (you can make an "l" sound by itself and an "r" sound by itself, so no vowels are required if a word only includes those letters).

[Verruckt]

The ruler of Omicron Persei VIII is named Lrrr, which is a valid spelling when you think about it (you can make an "l" sound by itself and an "r" sound by itself, so no vowels are required if a word only includes those letters).

wow, +1 internets to you sir.

[Vael Nir]

I absolutely loved Snow Crash. The characters, plot - essentially everything amazed me. This is the first book I've read by Stephenson. Are there any other books by him that are similar to Snow Crash (same writing style, etc.) that you would recommend to me?

Easiest one to get into apart from Snow Crash is Cryptonomicon imo. The Diamond Age is good if you don't mind a few "man what" moments, the overall plot is a bit strange (especially the fantastic conclusion) and you might suffer from future shock in some of the scenes. The Baroque Cycle is for people who have holidays coming up and want something slightly historical, very sophisticated and extremely funny/brutal (depends on what parts) to read. It's also not written in a linear way, so you may suffer from slight confusion the first time through (it's just as fun to read again though).