[mattmanser]

I'm reading Snow Crash at the moment for the first time.

The beginning is actually really tough going as a completely new reader today. It's just so ridiculous. I can see where he was coming from, as I grew up in that era, but it's actually pretty bizarre now given the reality is nation states, religion and banks turned out to be so much more powerful than corporations.

Which is one of the perils of predictions in ageing sci-fi.

I've been on a sci-fi kick recently of all the classics I never read (William Gibson, Ender's Game, The Mars Trilogy, Forever War, Starship Troopers, A Canticle For Leibowitz, Philip K. Dick, Hyperion Cantos, Ringworld) and re-reading some I've not read for a long time (Foundation Series).

I personally found that Snow Crash is by far the most dated book. Even Ringworld and the foundation series were better.

[notahacker]

I dunno, I find Snow Crash dates much better than most cyberpunk - William Gibson included - precisely because the ridiculousness was intentional. Neal no more believed we'd actually be living in an anarcho-capitalist dystopia with samurai-wielding hipster-heros delivering pizzas for the Mafia than Aldous Huxley believed we'd actually be letter-graded and programmed into praising his Fordship from birth.

Some of the space opera, on the other hand, was so earnest and certain that we'd be flying around at light-speed by now you feel almost disappointed for the authors.

[patcon]

Vernor Vinge is another great hard sci-fi author. "A Fire Upon the Deep" is a space opera epic if I've ever read one. Currently finishing up "Rainbows End", and wasn't sucked totally in until maybe 1/3 through, but now I'm hooked :)

[tekromancr]

Rainbow's End is one of my favorite books. I have probably read it 4 or 5 times since 2007. I find the ideas in it have gotten more accurate as time goes on.

[Florin_Andrei]

> Snow Crash is by far the most dated book

All cyberpunk is like that, for reasons that are pretty obvious.

> Even Ringworld and the foundation series were better.

Of course. Physical reality changes much more slowly.

[mattmanser]

I mention other cyberpunk that's not dated, I've read 2 or 3 of the Neuromancer series and that hasn't fared anywhere near as badly, the only glaring plot point I noticed in that is that no-one had mobile phones.

And when I refer to Foundation & Ringworld I meant that they are from the 60s and so have some weird cultural ideals as well as some (unintentional) misogyny & racism in the foundation series.

[RandallBrown]

Check out the Old Man's War series by John Scalzi. It's kind of a Starship Troopers meets Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy (A bit less absurd.)

[ajslater]

It was bizarre then. I was very skeptical the first few pages. I did not understand that the adolescent cheese was tongue in cheek until the second chapter.

[walterbell]

Have you read R.A. Lafferty?