Neal Stephenson

Neal Stephenson (1959 - ) is a singular writer. His fiction is shelved, for categorical convenience, in science fiction/fantasy here at Whistlestop Bookshop. He has written novels which have transformed the field of science fiction, historical novels which upend conventions of historical parameters, and contemporary novels which embarrass many of the current tropes and concerns of MFA literature. He is also an essayist with a wide range of interests. His breakthrough book was Snow Crash (1992), which coined and conceived the workings of “metaverse.” It also signaled his passion for ancient history, for outsiders, and for how systems work and decay and repair themselves and what they are (or are becoming) after being repaired. Ambitious stuff. And Stephenson is unafraid of Big Ideas.