Stephenson, Neal 1959-

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STEPHENSON, Neal 1959-

PERSONAL: Born October 31, 1959, in Fort Meade, MD; son of David Town (a professor) and Janet (a laboratory technician; maiden name, Jewsbury) Stephenson; married Ellen Marie Lackermann (a physician), June 28, 1985. Education: Boston University, B.A., 1981.

ADDRESSES: Agent—Liz Darhansoff, 1220 Park Ave., New York, NY 10128.

CAREER: Ames Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, Ames, IA, research assistant, 1978-79; Boston University, Boston, MA, teaching assistant in physics department, 1979; Corporation for a Cleaner Commonwealth (environmental group), Boston, researcher, 1980; University of Iowa, Iowa City, clerk in library, 1981-83; writer.

AWARDS, HONORS: Hugo Award for Best Novel, Mystery Writers of America, 1996, for The Diamond Age; Arthur C. Clarke Award, 2004, for Quicksilver.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

The Big U, Vintage Trade (New York, NY), 1984.

Zodiac: The Eco-Thriller, Atlantic Monthly Press (New York, NY), 1988.

Snow Crash, Bantam (New York, NY), 1992.

The Diamond Age; or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, Bantam (New York, NY), 1995.

Cryptonomicon, Avon (New York, NY), 1999.

In the Beginning . . . Was the Command Line, Perennial (New York, NY), 1999.

"BAROQUE CYCLE"; NOVELS

Quicksilver, Morrow (New York, NY), 2003.

The Confusion, Morrow (New York, NY), 2004.

The System of the World, Morrow (New York, NY), 2004.

OTHER

Contributor to the Akron Beacon Journal.

SIDELIGHTS: Neal Stephenson's first novel, The Big U, revolves around the American Megaversity, a huge, modern university, funded by a radioactive waste dump, and whose students arm themselves with machine guns. The satirical book, loaded with student pranks reminiscent of those in the 1978 film National Lampoon's Animal House, was deemed "a lot of fun" by Alan Cheuse in the New York Times Book Review, the critic noting that Stephenson's novel would appeal greatly to "alert and inquisitive students with a taste for campus comedy." Despite such positive reviews, however, The Big U did not find a large readership. Stephenson's second outing, Zodiac: The Eco-Thriller, was described by Steve Levy of Newsweek as "a tale of ecoactivism that won the hearts of tree huggers but didn't sell, either."

Stephenson's third novel, the widely acclaimed Snow Crash, proved to be the author's breakthrough book, bringing him cult status as one of the major cyberpunk novelists of his generation. According to Entertainment Weekly writer Chris Hashawaty, "The young and wired have turned . . . Snow Crash . . . into their dog-eared bible." Nadine Kolowrat, also writing in Entertainment Weekly, observed that 1992's Snow Crash "proved to be the pass-along favorite of sci-fi heads, hackers, and regular joes alike."

Snow Crash takes place partly in the Metaverse, a complex virtual-reality creation, and partly in the world that spawned it, a high-tech future dominated by corporations that are in turn opposed by renegade computer hackers. A similar setting was first made popular in William Gibson's seminal 1984 cyberpunk novel Neuromancer and has become the sine qua non of the genre. However, most reviewers find that Stephenson manages his own original and compelling take on what has become a cliché in the science-fiction field. John Leonard wrote in the Nation that no other cyberpunk writer has depicted virtual reality "so lyrically" as Stephenson, while Levy believed that, "when it comes to depicting the nerd mind-set, no one tops Stephenson." The "snow crash" of the book's title refers to a street drug/computer virus that has invaded the Metaverse, causing not only computer crashes in the virtual world but the physical collapse in the real world of those who encounter it. The central character of the novel, Hiro Protagonist—who has chosen his own name—employs information both from the Bible and ancient Summerian culture to track down the origins of snow crash. In the process he discovers a plot to take over and transform civilization. A writer for the New York Times Book Review noted that "Hiro's adventures . . . are brilliantly realized," and praised Stephenson as "an engaging guide to an onrushing tomorrow that is as farcical as it is horrific."

An Entertainment Weekly reviewer described Stephenson's follow-up to Snow Crash, The Diamond Age; or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, as "equal parts Victorian novel, fairy tale, and sci-fi; a tantalizing peak into the twenty-first century that bogs down in its various subplots." Whereas virtual reality serves as the technological background for Snow Crash, The Diamond Age explores nanotechnology, the manipulation of atomic particles both to transform matter and to create submicroscopic machines. Though traversing several continents in the course of its action, the novel is set for the most part in a future Shanghai at a time when the nations of the world have been replaced by enclaves of individuals who share common cultural identities and beliefs. Computer engineer John Hackworth is hired by a rich and powerful neo-Victorian to write a primer to help educate his granddaughter. The plot of the book turns on the complications that arise when a stolen copy of the primer falls into the hands of a working-class girl who uses it for her own education.

"Building steadily to a wholly earned and intriguing climax," stated a reviewer for Publishers Weekly, TheDiamond Age "presents its sometimes difficult technical concepts in accessible ways." Noting that the book is a somewhat lengthy read, the reviewer nonetheless maintained that the science-fiction novel would also "appeal to readers other than habitual SF users." Kolowrat took a more critical stance, commenting that "reading about someone reading a book is about as riveting as watching an actor think." The critic also found Stephenson's use of a Victorian vocabulary in a science-fictional environment to be jarring, but granted that The Diamond Age "does have great riffs on a futuristic world and some mindbending settings."

Stephenson followed The Diamond Age with his fifth novel, the highly successful Cryptonomicon. The most mainstream of Stephenson's works, the 928-page Cryptonomicon centers on two major characters, mathematician Lawrence Waterhouse and his programmer grandson, Randy. The book moves back and forth in time between World War II, when Lawrence is employed deciphering German and Japanese military codes, and the present, when Randy is involved in the technological development of Southeast Asia. A hidden treasure in Japanese gold ties the two story lines together, as does their examination of the birth and development of information technology.

Lev Grossman, reviewing Cryptonomicon for Entertainment Weekly, cautioned: "don't write off Stephenson's novel as just another fast-paced, find-the-MacGuffin techno-thriller. It's an engrossing look at the way the flow of information shapes history—as well as a rare glimpse in the soul of a hardcore geek." Jackie Cassada, in Library Journal, called Cryptonomicon "a story of epic proportions," and concluded: "Stephenson's freewheeling prose and ironic voice lend a sense of familiarity to a story that transcends the genre and demands a wide readership among fans of techno thrillers as well as a general audience." Reviewing Cryptonomicon for the New York Times Book Review, Dwight Gardner made a general observation about Stephenson's novels: "Despite all the hightech frippery, there's something old-fashioned about Stephenson's work. He cares as much about telling good stories as he does about farming out cool ideas. There's a strong whiff of moralism in his books, too. The bay guys in his fiction—that is, anyone who stands in a well-intentioned hacker's way—meet bad ends."

Readers of Cryptonomicon were also pleased with the publication of Stephenson's genre-defying and often unwieldy historical trilogy the "Baroque Cycle," which features as a major character the ancestor of Cryptonomicon's Waterhouses. The first installation of the trilogy, the almost 1,000-page Quicksilver, chronicles the adventures of a group of alchemists and vagabonds in the seventeenth and eighteenth century—some fictional, some not—including Daniel Waterhouse, Isaac Newton, and Samuel Pepys. A Kirkus Reviews critic commented on the book's "meandering, dense narrative," but called such a caveat "a trifle compared to [Stephenson's] awe-inspiring ambition and cheeky sense of humor." Grossman, writing for Time, noted that Quicksilver "will defy any category, genre, precedent or label," and praised Stephenson's ability to bring history to life: "he makes complex ideas clear, and he makes them funny, heartbreaking and thrilling."

The "Baroque Cycle" continues in the second volume, The Confusion, and the final installment, The System of the World. In the second book, Stephenson follows two parallel storylines that feature Jack Shaftoe and Eliza, characters from Quicksilver. A Publishers Weekly reviewer called The Confusion a "vast, splendid, and absorbing sequel," and while the reviewer noted that "one can't call anything about the Baroque Cycle 'brisk,'" the book's "richness of detail and language" received praise. A Kirkus Reviews critic summarized: "Packed with more derring-do than a dozen pirate films and with smarter, sparklier dialogue than a handful of Pulitzer winners, this is run-and-gun adventure fiction of the most literate kind."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 1, 1999, p. 1366.

Entertainment Weekly, January 27, 1995, p. 43; June 23, 1995, p. 60; March 15, 1996, p. 59; May 21, 1999, p. 24.

Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2003, review of Quicksilver, p. 935; February 1, 2004, review of The Confusion, p. 107.

Library Journal, May 15, 1999, p. 130.

Los Angeles Times, September 7, 1984.

Nation, November 15, 1993, p. 580.

Newsweek, May 10, 1999, p. 90.

New York Times Book Review, September 30, 1984; December 14, 1992; March 12, 1995; May 23, 1999.

Publishers Weekly, March 16, 1992, p. 74; December 19, 1994, p. 49; March 22, 1999, p. 67; May 12, 1999, p. 24; August 25, 2003, review of Quicksilver, p. 39; March 29, 2004, review of The Confusion, p. 38.

Time, September 8, 2003, Lev Grossman, "Isaac Newton, Action Hero," p. 91.