I have read maybe 1/2 to 2/3 of Stephenson's novels and I recall that Anathem had an ending I found satisfying! Seveneves also might have. I would suggest that perhaps his aesthetic desires for endings have come to greater congruence with his readers' but maybe I just learned to like what he's offering?
Stephenson actually wrote and tested his ending-creation algorithm for The Big U, and it works perfectly well in that context. Unfortunately, he has yet to realize that he accidentally hard-coded one of the array indices (instead of using the iteration variable). This is why the ending of every Neal Stephenson book is "enigmatic character sits and watches something emblematic explode, and also there's water nearby."
...I'd say you've got your choice of two Stephenson endings: "something new and amazing is about to enter the world, but the book is over now", and "something new and amazing has entered the world, but it shouldn't have any ongoing repercussions and fortunately none of the main characters were hurt"....
The last Stephenson book I read was Diamond Age, where the "and the book stops now" was so frustrating that I've been unable to bring myself to try his work again since.
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momijizukamori
Stephenson
Date: 2023-07-21 02:18 pm (UTC)I have read maybe 1/2 to 2/3 of Stephenson's novels and I recall that Anathem had an ending I found satisfying! Seveneves also might have. I would suggest that perhaps his aesthetic desires for endings have come to greater congruence with his readers' but maybe I just learned to like what he's offering?
My friend Brendan proposed several years ago:
More seriously, my spouse Leonard pointed out a little later:
On a completely separate note, today I saw this bit of bike memoir by![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
joshua0 and thought you'd like it.
no subject
Date: 2023-07-21 02:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-07-23 01:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-07-31 07:39 pm (UTC)The last Stephenson book I read was Diamond Age, where the "and the book stops now" was so frustrating that I've been unable to bring myself to try his work again since.