Top 20 "geek" novels

[Dr. Strangelove]

10/20. Also, I've read Cryptonomicon, the first two of the prequels and ~500 pages of the third. I guess I just got bored 2000 pages in and never finished. The prequels hit some really high points though.

[doughhater]

Ok, so I want to read the Neal Stephenson books, but I'm unsure where to start. What is the correct order of books?

[ChipWrecked]

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Ok, so I want to read the Neal Stephenson books, but I'm unsure where to start. What is the correct order of books?

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Cryptonomicon is a stand alone, but it introduces characters that continue in the Baroque Cycle, which begins with Quicksilver.

If you haven't read any Stephenson at all, start with his award winners Snow Crash and The Diamond Age.

[ethan]

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Ok, so I want to read the Neal Stephenson books, but I'm unsure where to start. What is the correct order of books?

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Snow Crash first, then probably Diamond Age. Past that, give Cryptonomicon a shot and see if you want to read his more recent stuff. If you want things less cyberpunk then skip SC, and probably DA. But you'll be doing yourself a disservice.

[doughhater]

Would you strongly recommend reading Snow Crash and Diamond Age prior to Cryptonomicon or do they not really interact?

[ethan]

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Would you strongly recommend reading Snow Crash and Diamond Age prior to Cryptonomicon or do they not really interact?

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There's no interaction between the first two books you mention and the third. Or, for that matter, between the first two. But they require less committment to read and they're both excellent. They are more...cyberpunk. But there's going to be some suspension of disbelief in all of these books. Cryptonomicon basically abandoned the cyberpunk genre and went towards historical fiction.

So, SC/DA aren't connected to his later books, but I'd still recommend starting with them.

[doughhater]

Thanks for the info. Luckily, suspension of disbelief is one of my strengths.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon are my favorites.

[mason55]

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12

Half-assed geek. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

Snow Crash > Cryptonomicon > any Gibson

I was pleased to see many props for Ender's Game in the comments.

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Yeah, if they wanted real geek they'd have much different books in there. Where the hell are the tech manuals? Teh Guide to Teh L00nix and [censored]?

Geek my ass. This is a dork poll, not a geek poll.

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Like I said, I just copied it from the Guardian and made a stab in the dark that it would generate good discussion on this board.

If I made a list of "geek" books I've read it would include "Programming Linux Device Drivers," "Advanced Operating System Development," "The x86 Architecture Reference Guide," and "PCI Specification v2.1"

[masse75]

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Should I feel good about myself that I've only heard of 3 of those?

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I hope those three are the first three.

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You got it...DAMN!!! How did "Dune" sneak in there? Make it four. [censored]! I'm a journeyman dork now.

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I was slightly curious how you'd managed not to ever _hear_ of Dune. Again, to the people who haven't read (or heard of ) most of these, I'd still recommend Neil Gaiman. American Gods or Neverwhere would both be good places to start.

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I had. Just missed it the first time, which is why I'm up to 4.