The Sword and Laser discussion

I haven't read this one yet, but I want to know if Stephenson has gotten better yet with how he writes his endings. Snow Crash had a quick ending; the end of Diamond Age was way too rushed for me (ie, how is he going to wrap this up in twelve more pages, oh I guess he won't). I swore off the author until he learned how to finish his books better. Anathem did show some improvement. So without telling me the actual ending, do you consider it satisfying? rushed? incomplete?

I finished the audio version yesterday and loved the ending. Any faults I found with the book were made up for in it's conclusion. It was definitely satisfying to me, but then again I haven't had a problem with Stephenson's endings in the past.

Wow. I hated the ending. I thought it was a lot of words for not a lot actually happening and the end itself was unsatisfying. Each their own I guess! :)

I too found the ending unsatisfying. It seemed like he wrote it as an afterthought and only because his editor told him he had to wrap it up. I guess I just feel like there was more there, and he ignored it.

To be more specific, I thought there were times when the book seemed a bit slow. I think it really increased it's pace and by the end it was at a fever pitch for me as (view spoiler)[it reached conclusion at Jacob's cabin. I liked the characters a lot, they had so many interesting personalities. The action sequences during the story's climax were well done and call me a sap, but the warm fuzzy ending was right on as I said goodbye to the characters I got to know during this 38 1/2 hour audio book. Malcolm Hillgartner's narration was excellent and I can't help thinking significantly made the audio version preferable to print... (hide spoiler)] I felt like this was definitely Stephenson's most accessible book I've listened to and most down to earth. To each their own, definitely :o)

@terpkristin- I'm curious if you graduated from Maryland. I'm guessing that's where your handle comes from.

I agree with Philip that parts of the book seemed a bit slow, but they didn't bother me as much as the ending did. (view spoiler)[Generally speaking, I think boys like "battle scenes" as Stephenson wrote it much more than girls do. I got really bored reading about what type of gun they were using and what "tactical maneuvering" they were doing. And the cheeseball ending made me want to throw my Kindle across the room. But my biggest frustration was that it was too "neat." Everybody that you know and love (ok, except for John and you really don't know him that much) lives with a comparative minimum of injuires? And the relationships "budding." Gag. (hide spoiler)]

@Philip yep, I graduated from Maryland in 2001 with my BS and 2004 with my MS. I still live sort of in the area (I live in northern Virginia) so I buy football season tickets each year and go to games when work doesn't get in the way.

Thanks to the Terps for producing the founder of Under Armour. Best apparel innovation for sports ever!

Seems to me that the story ended because some one saw the page count had hit 1000 pages and decided it had to end. Though as everyone has mentioned Neal does ends his books this way pretty often...

I'm within 30 pages of the end and I can't wait to be done with this book. It feels like the book that never ends. I can't help but think that this would have been a better book to listen to on audible than to read.

I wasn't too happy with the ending. It was suuuuuper obvious where it was going to take place, how it was going to go down, etc. I wish it had been a bit less predictable, and maybe done more to mirror the in-game conflict in the Torgai Foothills. It felt like he was going for a connection there, but it didn't really click.

I did like Richard (view spoiler)[totally fucking up his big action scene in the woods (hide spoiler)] - that felt very "Stephenson" to me.

Finished it. There were many little things I liked about the novel but not enough in my opinion to justify the behemoth amount of text. This is one of the few novels where I liked the characters but I just didn't care much for the story they were going through. I felt like I had heard a lot of this story before in other similar TV/movie/books and that there wasn't a lot the author could add to it even trying at his hardest.

I find it interesting that the novel's cover is mostly the author's name in large text with the novels name as almost a subtitle.

I too was disappointed in the ending, but not because it was abrupt - that's just how Stephenson writes. Rather I was disappointed because it seemed like it took forever to get there. It was (as others have said) completely obvious where it was heading.

Part of my disappointment came as a result of a review I read (AV Club, maybe?) that talked about the last 150 pages as being a nonstop action sequence. Stephenson can write GREAT action over long sections of a book (view spoiler)[I'm thinking of the combo gun battle/sword fight between Jack's crew and the Duc d'Arcachon in The Baroque Cycle (hide spoiler)] but this really wasn't the case here. All that setup and moving of characters seemed to just drag on and on.

I had no issues with how it ended. This of course doesn't include the epilogue, which I'm forcing myself to forget....

To your questions, I was satisfied (I don't know why knowing WHERE the ending would take place matters), it didn't feel rushed and I wasn't worried much with "completeness" in what was basically a thriller...

@terp@philip Hope y'all are enjoying Edsall. Good guy and good coach...but y'all shouldn't have got rid of the Fridge. Not so good a guy and bad recruiter but a great coach.

P.S. they didn't really get along when they were at GT together.

And while under armour is a UM company, GT was the first school to actually use it...

It's not that I had a problem with where it ended, it's that he telegraphed it *so* far in advance, and it was *so* obvious that everyone was slowly converging on that point. I'd have enjoyed it more if I hadn't been waiting for it ever since they left China.

Yeah I hear you. Even knowing that though, I enjoyed how he got everyone there....and of course this book is too long

Nick wrote: "Finished it. There were many little things I liked about the novel but not enough in my opinion to justify the behemoth amount of text. This is one of the few novels where I liked the characters ..."

I just finished it, and must say your summary seems to echo my own feelings Nick. I really struggled with the last 20% both due to lack of time, but also desire.

As to the ending it was what I expected and as @Mike said felt somewhat telegraphed.

The ending was exceedingly trite. It merely reconfirmed to me the pandering nature of the narrative, characters, settings, and ideas.

Nick wrote: "I'm within 30 pages of the end and I can't wait to be done with this book. It feels like the book that never ends. I can't help but think that this would have been a better book to listen to on a..."

I actually listened to the last 20% after reading the first 80%. I didn't find it to be any better. The narration was ok, but I actually preferred reading it to the audiobook. I was lacking for sit down reading time, verse other downtime where listening was possible so saw this as a way to wrap it up.

I thought the ending was good. Much better than a typical Stephenson ending. It did get pretty wordy and there were a lot of things going on that I didn't care about, but as far as the major players, I felt like it was a continuous build to the end. Even if it was telegraphed ahead of time.

I'm only about 40% through (clearly moving slowly) but I already feel like I've read one book and am starting on a sequel. Some continuing characters, but a new plot. The "book" in the first 30% seems to be finished and we are moving on.

Suzanne wrote: "I'm only about 40% through (clearly moving slowly) but I already feel like I've read one book and am starting on a sequel. Some continuing characters, but a new plot. The "book" in the first 30% ..."

Stephenson has said he wanted to make the two parts of the book into two separate books but his publisher decided to keep the parts together

http://www.denverpost.com/recommended...
"Reamde" has two parts of almost equal length: "Nine Dragons" and "American Salt." While it would be possible to treat the novels as a series by splitting them up, he said his publisher has generally decided to keep the works together.

That is interesting Nick - I'm glad I'm not imagining things!

I found it picked up for me around the 40% mark. Interesting to know about the book almost being two.

Huh, interesting that Stephenson envisioned it being two books. I agree, it kind of felt that way.

Oddly, I also felt like Anathem was two books mashed together.

Thanks for the input guys, I think I'm right to skip this one for now. It sounds similar to problems I've had with previous books of his.

Kvon, I think you made the right decision... I finally finished the book on Sunday night, but at the end, I found myself just skipping pages and pages of quite unbelievable action. I found the whole story and especially the ending to be far too neatly constructed.

The book also failed the 'Can I explain it to others'-Test. I tried to sum up the story to my wife and the whole thing just sounded so unbelievable and unconvincing to me and her. I don't think I would recommend the book to my friends.

Finally, the book was also my first Stephenson. From his geek fame, I expected the story to have more to it than just constructed action and a race around the world. Needless to say, I was deeply disappointed.

Nicolai wrote: "The book also failed the 'Can I explain it to others'-Test..."

Too funny! This is probably the easiest Stephenson book to explain to someone(not that it's easy to do). The guy is very quirky and seems to be hit & miss with many people.

This is my first Stephenson book too. I will probably finish it eventually, but right now it is my 'chore' book where I read a few pages before I go on to something I like more. I don't dislike it enough to quit, I just don't like it enough to be totally involved. I'm exactly half through - so maybe by this time next year I'll be done =).

I really enjoyed the book - I think those of us that listened on Audible had some advantage, whether it was the performance of the narrator, or perhaps that it was less daunting as an MP3 than as a 1000 page tome. This novel seemed to have the same sort of stylistic(?) approach to having numerous plot and character threads all coming together for the finale - I know some people have criticized Stephenson and other authors for overuse of coincidence, but personally I felt that it worked well and that it felt 'right'.

Yeah, the ending was kind of disappointing, but that's how I felt about the book in general. I really liked the characters and the in-game and behind-the-scenes aspects of T'Rain, and for those aspects I'm glad I read it. But a lot of the whole chase/action-sequence plot held too many implausibilities to be immersive for me, and it was too long of a slog to work purely as a fun pot-boiler/adventure. (It wasn't just the length - Anathem and Cryptonomicon were both nearly as long, but I felt they justified their lengthinesses).

Nick wrote: "Stephenson has said he wanted to make the two parts of the book into two separate books but his publisher decided to keep the parts together."

That's very interesting. I wonder if I would have enjoyed it more that way.

For those of you for whom this was your first Stephenson, please give Snow Crash a try at some point - I probably like Reamde's characters more, but Snow Crash is much more imaginative and better paced (considerably shorter, too ;) ).

Neal Stephenson is one of my favorite authors. I left work early to get my copy and start reading right away. That ended up being a complete waste of comp time. I finally slogged through the ending yesterday. Every other book of his I've raced through in a matter of days for the first time. This book is a dog.

It could be the change of genres to a Thriller but I would label Cryptonomicon that way as well and think it's a great book. This was just crammed with coincidence and unbelievable situations piling one on top of the other. Entire blocks of chapters were completely irrelevant filled with characters that were over described and still flat and unmotivated.

The book truly came to an end for me with the deus ex machina that is Abdullah Jones. The rest of the novel felt so contrived I finished out of loyalty to Stephenson's past work instead of throwing it in the bin like I should have.

I will still recommend every one of his other stories but I really wish this one had died in the hard drive.