Some Remarks

By: Neal Stephenson

Narrated by: Jeff Cummings

“Neal Stephenson has made a name for himself as a writer whose imagination knows no limits.”
—Salon

#1 New York Times bestselling author Neal Stephenson is, quite simply, one of the best and most respected writers alive. He’s taken sf to places it’s never been (Snow Crash, Anathem). He’s reinvented the historical novel (The Baroque Cycle), the international thriller (Reamde), and both at the same time (Cryptonomicon). Now he treats his legion of fans to Some Remarks, an enthralling collection of essays—Stephenson’s first nonfiction work since his long essay on technology, In the Beginning…Was the Command Line, more than a decade ago—as well as new and previously published short writings both fiction and non. Some Remarks is a magnificent showcase of a brilliantly inventive mind and talent, as he discourses on everything from Sir Isaac Newton to Star Wars.

Worth a revisit

Would you listen to Some Remarks again? Why?

Although I read several of these pieces when they were originally published (FLAG, Slashdot) I've enjoyed revisiting them. Although I loved "Reamde," I don't have time this month to get sucked in for 30 hours, so this collection of shorter pieces is great.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Jeff Cummings?

Maybe. This is perhaps not the best material for an audio treatment, and Cummings does a good job, overall. I wish he knew Stephenson's vocabulary better. ASCII is pronounced with an "aye-aye," or, better, as "as-key," and Stephenson and his readers would reflexively cringe, as I did, at "a-ess-see-two." Neal wrote "In The Beginning Was The Command Line;" he knows from 8-bit character encoding and that's one of the things I like best about him. To mispronounce that sort of vocabulary makes the narrator obvious. Like an offensive lineman, a narrator is rarely noticed for good performance.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Not really, since it's a collection of essays best take in discrete chunks.

Good collection of essays, coffee with Neal

This is as close as you or I will probably get to a conversation with Neal Stephenson. He has a lot of interesting things to say in this collection of essays, glimpses into his other works, and the working of his mind. The mid American college town mentality, in the forward to “Everything and more”, by David Foster Wallace, paints a good autobiographical sketch of Neal’s milieu. His sparkling intelligence is evident everywhere. Thank you Neal. Keep writing!

A mix of entertaining pieces--best for fans

I hadn't read much Stephenson outside of his books, many of which I have read (the ones I haven't read make a much shorter list).

This was a good smattering of pieces (well, I anticipate it will be; I've had it in my library for four days and it's half gone already).

My only complaint is that the narrator #FAILs in geek vocab: ASCII is pronounced as-key, not a-es-see-two, and mojo is pronounced moe-joe, not moe-hoe.

You'd think the producer could pick up the phone and ask someone rather than guessing...

The good news is these miscues are rather rare in this book.

If you're a Stephenson fan and sort of know what he's about, this is a good read. If you're a die-hard Stephenson fan and you've read everything you can get your hands on, this might be worth a shot. I am happy I spent my credit on this one.

Not exactly what I expected...

A lot of old stuff, but fairly enjoyable. I basically expected Mr Stephenson speaking with the reader about things, but the book was interviews/ articles with a few short stories thrown in between. The short stories were actually quite good. Ive purchased short stories from other authors I have enjoyed and found them to be dreadful, with no question in my mind as to why the stories were not made into novels. I find myself wishing this book was more- without regretting my use of a credit on it. By the way, I am fascinated with the treadmill desk, and am planning on giving it a try.

A solid “eh”

The highlight is a deep dive into the world of undersea cable laying - well documented and surprising. Something I really wouldn’t have learned about any other way.
But the rest of the remarks ans stories are just a solid “eh”.