[geeks] Re: [SunHELP] SSA and fiber card being a royal PITA

[David Cantrell]

On Wed, Jul 04, 2001 at 11:43:56AM -0400, Brian Hechinger wrote:

> Lara Matthews wrote:
> 
> > Hiro Protagonist--hacker, samurai swordsman and pizza-delivery driver
> > from Snow crash by Neal Stephenson  - very good book.  The first chapter
> > has got to be one of the best first chapters ever.
> 
> that first chapter did me in.  though, "ok, everyone says how good this book is
> and how i should read it, i don't have a lot of time right now, but i'll read
> the first chapter just to get started."  half a book later i put it down.

That's about the best place to put down Stephenson.  IMO, he's great at
beginnings and middles, but lousy at ending his stories.  Snow Crash and
The Diamond Age are particularly bad in this way.  Cryptonomicon isn't
quite so awful, but even so, it really does need far more work on tieing
up all the various story threads.

-- 
David Cantrell | david at cantrell.org.uk | http://www.cantrell.org.uk/david/

If you save all your money for three years, you'll be able to afford this
new computer.  If, however, you blow all your money on poker, booze and
loose women - you'll still be able to afford it in three years.
                                                      --- anon, on Usenet