First off, no disrespect intended to Mr. Stephenson and his books, they kick ass for me.
Dan Brown, not so much, though I have to confess the Da Vinci Code did keep me guiltily glued to the book for a short span of days till it was read.
Reamde would probably be the first book since with a similar impact.
So how do they compare?
The Brown book was intriguing in that for the first time since Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh, non-readers were bending my ear about this fantastic book. The buzz about Trainspotting was to do with the immediacy of it's subject matter and the excellence of it's writing.
The buzz about Dan Brown was the inclusion of a tonne of conspiracy theories, studding them with a lot of faux scientific decoration, then packaging the whole lot into a standard thriller. Fair play. But unsatisfying for nerds already listening to the Jesus and Mary Chain and familiar with such well-rehearsed topics as the fibonacci sequence and golden mean.
Into this breach steps Neal Stephenson. He demonstrated with Cryptonimionc(sp?) how to write a world-spanning thriller, backed up with way more esoteric discursions into crytography. A+ from the nerds, and he writes with a arch levity to keep the non nerds onside.
Loving Cryptonomicon so much I decided to dedicate my life to reading everything the author produced. Slight mistake. Stephenson is prolific and exhaustingly erudite, and I ground to a halt in one of his Baroque novels (btw, a Stephenson novel probably matches a Brown for pages per buck).
Then I chanced upon a favourable review of Reamde , got the book and goodbye social interaction.
<Spoiler alert>If you are intrigued by this book, stop reading now and start reading the book.
If you're undecided, read the book and look away.
If you've read the book, or are going to read it anyway, the rest of this review won't give away any plot details.
<Spoiler alert book review>
Imagine your favourite Hollywood blockbuster. Say hackers versus spies. Cool. Now wouldn't that be even more fun if some unstoppable Russian gangsters were added in. Mix in some hardcore jihadiis, and a few jokers. And combat system based on video games you play.
All the makings of the best Hollywood blockbuster ever, except it's not made yet, may never be.
</Spoiler alert book review>
</Spoiler alert>
So just read the damn book.
