But there's a MacGuffin they don't bank on. Richard and his fellow gamer designers make sure that T'Rain actually plays into this have and have-not discrepancy. Here, in place of the author's trademark technology- and philosophy-driven speculation, you'll mostly find a techno-martial thriller, much in the same vein as Tom Clancy, albeit expertly crafted and often gorgeously written. Whereas *Snow Crash *and Cryptonomicon commingled code breaking, mimetics, and nanotechnology with Sumerian myth, Greek philosophy, and economic theory, Reamde, set on present day planet Earth, barely traffics in such esoterica. But fans of his genre-blending touch that often welds historical to science fiction with a bead of cyberpunk might find themselves displeased with the ride of this narrative machine. Stephenson is already notorious for churning out tomes sprawling in both page count and plot. As Stephenson notes in his acknowledgments, he required the services of a ''ballistics copy editor'' to fact-check the inner-workings of every Kalashnikov and bolt-action. By the time Stephenson's world-girdling novel has reached its exhaustive conclusion, countless rounds have been fired. Various firearms - shotguns, Glocks, assault rifles - are discharged by uncles, nephews, nieces and boyfriends into an Iowa pasture. Neal Stephenson's Reamde opens with a target practice session at the Forthrast clan's annual Thanksgiving gathering.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |