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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
I always think authors who set their sci fi in current times and base it in real technology are, um, courageous? What's wildly bleeding-edge in 1994 sounds lame and antiquated in 2011. I guess that's the real problem with describing actual instead of "near future" technology. Luckily for my commuting sanity, the story here is ok (think mid-grade Crichton?) and knowing the awesomeness that is to come from one half of this writing duo, I can forgive nearly anything for the price of a single Audible credit.
19/2/11
Finished listening to this yesterday. Demoting it to 2 stars,because really, other than my affection for Stephenson, it doesn't have much going for it. In fact if it was by any other author I would probably give it one star. It is interesting to see how an author develops over time- this book, while crappy, touches on a lot of interesting and familiar Stephenson themes: secret power structures; currency and the relationship between events and value; technology; a female protagonist (in this case two). The story is complicated (and made overcomplicated by deus ex-ish appearances out of the blue of new characters at convenient moments) and interesting- I don't think Stephenson could be boring if he tried. It's just contrived and not very well written imo- there's a lot of using the same adjective twice in one paragraph, and "he said, she said" dialogue. It's hard to imagine the amazingly beautiful and erudite prose style of 21st century Stephenson as belonging to the same guy who penned this. OMG maybe he has had one of those implants!1!111!! (you have to read it if you want to get my lame joke).
19/2/11
Finished listening to this yesterday. Demoting it to 2 stars,because really, other than my affection for Stephenson, it doesn't have much going for it. In fact if it was by any other author I would probably give it one star. It is interesting to see how an author develops over time- this book, while crappy, touches on a lot of interesting and familiar Stephenson themes: secret power structures; currency and the relationship between events and value; technology; a female protagonist (in this case two). The story is complicated (and made overcomplicated by deus ex-ish appearances out of the blue of new characters at convenient moments) and interesting- I don't think Stephenson could be boring if he tried. It's just contrived and not very well written imo- there's a lot of using the same adjective twice in one paragraph, and "he said, she said" dialogue. It's hard to imagine the amazingly beautiful and erudite prose style of 21st century Stephenson as belonging to the same guy who penned this. OMG maybe he has had one of those implants!1!111!! (you have to read it if you want to get my lame joke).
Loved it...I have many friends that would believe this is fact, not fiction. Yes, the 20 year old tech gets in the way of the modern reader at times, but the story and ideas are as relevant today as they were back then, perhaps more so. A good read.
At the beginning of this book I was worried that, like with "Reamde", Neal Stephenson would be stepping too far away from his strong suit and had tried to write a book entirely about American politics. I wasn't interested in a book about the American political system at the turn of the millennia, I wanted a science fiction book in which Neal Stephenson took me just beyond the scope of reality and into the plausible-but-fictional. But I kept reading and it turned out that "Interface" is exactly what I hoped it would be. Complex, tangled, and fascinating, "Interface" is a classic Neal Stephenson book.
Good election year read combining political trickery with mind control technology. Fun to wonder when in the future this scenario could be feasible.
Good stuff--holds up surprisingly well after ~15 years. Especially appropriate now with the election.
However, I got halfway through and realized I'd already read it. I have no idea when.
However, I got halfway through and realized I'd already read it. I have no idea when.
The other collaboration between these two authors, Cobweb, was a thriller with a message: the US government doesn't work anymore. "Ordinary" folks are the only people who get things done, usually despite the government.
Interface is also a thriller with a message: Elections don't work anymore, either. This is because of television. It takes a similar technical and stylistic approach; "ordinary" folks turn out to be really important, humour that people will recognise from Stephenson's solo novels, though less extreme or outlandish, perhaps. Unfortunately it also shares some of the weaknesses of those giant later works, e.g. too many characters, lack of urgency or narrative drive and, crucially, not much tension until exceedingly near the end. This is disappointing, since Cobweb evades most of these problems and delivers a tense final act. Even more disappointing, in that Zodiac demonstrates that at one time Stephenson could write taught, exciting fiction as well as make a point, without help from anybody else - but we're not likely to see another book from him that is less than 400p long, are we? And I just can't be bothered with another of his 1000p tomes.
Reading this book is a healthy reminder of how such manipulation is conducted, on a practical level but readers are not offered much by way of a solution to the problems of media manipulation of/by politicians in this book. I offer one idea as a way of mitigating the problem to some limited extent: don't watch TV news, ever. Listen to talk radio news, instead - by which I mean the BBC or (second best) NPR.
Interface is also a thriller with a message: Elections don't work anymore, either. This is because of television. It takes a similar technical and stylistic approach; "ordinary" folks turn out to be really important, humour that people will recognise from Stephenson's solo novels, though less extreme or outlandish, perhaps. Unfortunately it also shares some of the weaknesses of those giant later works, e.g. too many characters, lack of urgency or narrative drive and, crucially, not much tension until exceedingly near the end. This is disappointing, since Cobweb evades most of these problems and delivers a tense final act. Even more disappointing, in that Zodiac demonstrates that at one time Stephenson could write taught, exciting fiction as well as make a point, without help from anybody else - but we're not likely to see another book from him that is less than 400p long, are we? And I just can't be bothered with another of his 1000p tomes.
Reading this book is a healthy reminder of how such manipulation is conducted, on a practical level but readers are not offered much by way of a solution to the problems of media manipulation of/by politicians in this book. I offer one idea as a way of mitigating the problem to some limited extent: don't watch TV news, ever. Listen to talk radio news, instead - by which I mean the BBC or (second best) NPR.