NEAL STEPHENSON
The irresistible appeal of Neal Stephenson, previously known only to fans of his
clever, edgy science fiction bestsellers "Snow Crash" and "The Diamond Age," was
revealed to the world in 1999 with the release of "Cryptonomicon," a sprawling
novel of World War II codebreaking, modern-day cyberadventure, and global
conspiracy spanning half a century. Now out in paperback, "Cryptonomicon" sets
the stage for a planned trilogy of books loosely tied to the topic of
cryptography. We had a chance to catch up with Stephenson about "Quicksilver,"
the upcoming sequel to "Cryptonomicon," and what else he's been up to. We hope
you enjoy this short interview.
Amazon.com: When can we expect to see "Quicksilver"?
Neal Stephenson: I hope it will be written by late summer or early autumn. After
that it becomes the publisher's problem as to when it'll actually be seen. It
used to be a year, but now it seems like these things get out to the market
faster.
Amazon.com: Will the Cryptonomicon, the old book of code secrets referred to in
your book "Cryptonomicon," make an appearance in "Quicksilver"?
Neal Stephenson: Ahhh! Very good question. The ancient one, the original book. Yes,
yes it will, actually.
Amazon.com: Will we see any characters that we know and love?
Neal Stephenson: Well, probably not. It takes place approximately 300 years ago.
Amazon.com: When you were researching "Cryptonomicon," you checked out an old
submarine to make sure your U-boat scenes were authentic. What sorts of things
are you doing for "Quicksilver"?
Neal Stephenson: There are two kinds of research. There's wandering around trying to
get ideas, and I'm done with that--most of that was reading books. That's the
kind of research that you do at the beginning to get the process moving. Then
there's the kind of research that you do at the end, to answer questions like,
When you go into such-and-such castle and take a left turn, what do you see?
Nailing down those little incidental details and cleaning things up. I have yet
to do that. I may have to go visit one or two locations, probably in Europe,
later in the year. Just to make sure I'm not completely making a fool of myself.
Amazon.com: Is that kind of thing fun for you, or does it feel like work?
Neal Stephenson: Well, I can't complain. In a way it's good, because I'm not good at
aimless tourism. I have a hard time just going somewhere with no plan of action.
So this kind of thing gives me an excuse. When I went to Chicago to look at the
U-boat, I would have been bored just wandering around Chicago, waiting for
something to happen. But as it was, I knew I had to go to the museum during
particular hours, and that gave me something to concentrate on.
Amazon.com: Is there one book you've read lately that you can recommend?
Neal Stephenson: In terms of current stuff not related to my book, I really like Sean
Stewart's latest book, "Galveston." But other than that, a lot of the stuff I'm
reading for the historical research would be poor recommendations. It's pretty
specialized.
Amazon.com: Do you do a lot of research online? And do you ever read stuff
online in the same way that you read books?
Neal Stephenson: I've never even tried to read anything long online. I basically use
the Internet as kind of a shopping mall where you don't have to worry about
where to park. I don't think of the Internet as a source of reading pleasure.
Maybe that'll change, but I've got cases and cases of books I haven't had time
to read yet. It's weird. For a while, I owned a copy of the CD-ROM version of
the "Encyclopedia Britannica." I've also got the paper version. And I never used
the CD-ROM version. I would always look stuff up in the paper version. Now
"Britannica" is online for free, and I still don't use it that much. So I don't
know what it is. I've made that jump when it comes to buying stuff--the Internet
is automatically where I buy stuff. But I haven't made that jump when it comes
to getting information or reading material.
Amazon.com: What do you think about "Cryptonomicon" becoming such a collectible
book?
Neal Stephenson: Oh yeah, I got an award for that. I don't know what that means. I've
never really made a conscious effort to collect books. I accumulate them; I
don't collect them.
FEATURED IN THIS E-MAIL:
