Plain Old Tele Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Wow, and the hits just keep on coming! Neal Stephenson's sprawling and awesome novel REAMDE (well, actually, that description applies to all Stephenson books ) is being developing into a TV series by the Weitz brothers. As with most of his stuff, the book's a bit difficult to quickly categorize, but it involves virtual-world warfare (a la World of Warcraft), real world asymmetric terrorism, and it's a sprawling action/adventure that covers the west coast of the US, a good part of south-east Asia, and the Pacific Northwest. http://www.deadline.com/2013/02/chriz-paul-weitz-to-adapt-novel-reamde-as-tv-series-for-fox-tv-studios/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndustriousAngel Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 I must confess that I found "Reamde" rather longwinded and boring. Just to check, I had to re-read Diamond Age and Snow Crash and they were as powerful as ever, but Reamde is like something of "Zodiac" quality stretched out to 4x the neccessary length. It looks as if he got paid by word - and needed the money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plain Old Tele Posted February 17, 2013 Author Share Posted February 17, 2013 Stephenson's gotten more long-winded with his recent novels, but he's also gotten better at endings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndustriousAngel Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Well, Reamde's ending has to been read to be believed, I'll give you that. Jane Austen can't hold a candle to this. btw, I liked Anathem even it was longwinded too, but it wasn't as cheesy, and Reamde suffers from more than cheesiness imho ... "gun porn" was a term used in some reviews and yes, I had that impression, and the villain was one of those "always explains his motifs before pulling the trigger" idiots, and the Russians were gentlemanly to ladies, and Stephenson seems to have a very poor understanding about the world of MMORPGs and what makes one successful and what not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plain Old Tele Posted February 17, 2013 Author Share Posted February 17, 2013 Yeah, I liked ANATHEM more than REAMDE as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Community Manager Water Bottle Posted February 17, 2013 Community Manager Share Posted February 17, 2013 I think I tried reading Anathem. I stopped when the monk guy went into the city and fixed something or something like that. I was so bored, I decided to read another book. I still have no idea what it's really supposed to be about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plain Old Tele Posted February 17, 2013 Author Share Posted February 17, 2013 I think I tried reading Anathem. I stopped when the monk guy went into the city and fixed something or something like that. I was so bored, I decided to read another book. I still have no idea what it's really supposed to be about.Hahaha. It takes a couple hundred pages to figure out the lingo and get the gist of things. THEN some key interesting things happen and the story gets under way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndustriousAngel Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 btw, anyone here with an idea if and how "The Diamond Age" is coming along? The rights were sold to SyFy channel many years ago; they wanted to do a miniseries. I think this would be a very filmable book - colourful, thought-provoking, emotional - and the ending with the girls army flooding the streets is as powerful an image as you could wish for. "Snow Crash" seems to be considered and that would be a fun film too, not as groundbreaking as TDA, but full of high-speed action and cool gadgets and cooler guys (any suggestions as to who'd play the Aleut?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plain Old Tele Posted February 18, 2013 Author Share Posted February 18, 2013 I haven't heard a peep about anything Diamond Age-related. Personally, I think a Baroque Cycle series would be fantastic for HBO or Showtime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Community Manager Water Bottle Posted February 18, 2013 Community Manager Share Posted February 18, 2013 Hahaha. It takes a couple hundred pages to figure out the lingo and get the gist of things. THEN some key interesting things happen and the story gets under way. Meh, that's a bad story template in my opinion. A good story is engaging from beginning to end. I don't want to be bored for a couple hundred pages before I get to the "good" stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plain Old Tele Posted February 18, 2013 Author Share Posted February 18, 2013 It's not fluff -- it's key to understanding the world and grasping what comes later. But it's probably not a very good choice to start out with if you haven't read Stephenson before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Community Manager Water Bottle Posted February 18, 2013 Community Manager Share Posted February 18, 2013 It's not fluff -- it's key to understanding the world and grasping what comes later. But it's probably not a very good choice to start out with if you haven't read Stephenson before. I never said it was fluff. I'm sure it was integral to understanding the plot later on but it doesn't....make it a good story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plain Old Tele Posted February 18, 2013 Author Share Posted February 18, 2013 Well, part of the engagement comes from the philosophical discussions and world creation, but I understand it's not for everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
