Books with author Neal Stephenson

Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon was first published in 1999 to immense critical and popular acclaim. An ambitious, absorbing account of war, conspiracy, and code breaking, it represented a huge step forward for a gifted writer whose previous creations included the Hugo Award-winning The Diamond Age and the virtual reality classic, Snow Crash.The events of Cryptonomicon take place along two parallel time tracks: the Second World War and the present day. The earlier segments feature, among others, Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse, a young math prodigy tasked with concealing the fact that Allied forces have successfully broken Germany's infamous Enigma code. Protagonists of the latter section include Randy Waterhouse, Lawrence's grandson, a computer hacker helping to construct an autonomous 'data haven' in the Sultanate of Kirakuta. Together, these two narratives successfully illuminate two different worlds, one of which grew directly out of the struggles and achievements of the other.Sometimes horrific, frequently hilarious, densely packed with information on a wide variety of subjects, from cryptanalysis to treasure hunting to the proper method of eating Cap'n Crunch, Cryptonomicon is a genuine modern epic. On one level, it is an astonishing, wholly original portrait of a world at war. On another, it is a provocative meditation on the ways that science and technology help shape--and alter--the course of human history. A work of great erudition and equally great imaginative power, it is--and will remain--one of the significant literary accomplishments of the modern era.

An urgent, on-the-ground look at some of the “new American radicals” who have laid everything on the line to build a stronger climate justice movementThe science is clear: catastrophic climate change, by any humane definition, is upon us. At the same time, the fossil-fuel industry has doubled down, economically and politically, on business as usual. We face an unprecedented situation—a radical situation. As an individual of conscience, how will you respond?In 2010, journalist Wen Stephenson woke up to the true scale and urgency of the catastrophe bearing down on humanity, starting with the poorest and most vulnerable everywhere, and confronted what he calls “the spiritual crisis at the heart of the climate crisis.” Inspired by others who refused to retreat into various forms of denial and fatalism, he walked away from his career in mainstream media and became an activist, joining those working to build a transformative movement for climate justice in America.In What We’re Fighting for Now Is Each Other, Stephenson tells his own story and offers an up-close, on-the-ground look at some of the remarkable and courageous people—those he calls “new American radicals”—who have laid everything on the line to build and inspire this fast-growing movement: old-school environmentalists and young climate-justice organizers, frontline community leaders and Texas tar-sands blockaders, Quakers and college students, evangelicals and Occupiers. Most important, Stephenson pushes beyond easy labels to understand who these people really are, what drives them, and what they’re ultimately fighting for. He argues that the movement is less like environmentalism as we know it and more like the great human-rights and social-justice struggles of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, from abolitionism to civil rights. It’s a movement for human solidarity.This is a fiercely urgent and profoundly spiritual journey into the climate-justice movement at a critical moment—in search of what climate justice, at this late hour, might yet mean.

Follow-up to the author's cyberpunk classic, "Snow Crash," involves a "brilliant nanotechnologist who breaks the rigid moral code of this tribe, the neo-Victorians," & illegally copies an interactive device designed to raise girls to think for themselves...which falls into the hands of a gang of young street urchins, where a young girl sets out to reprogram humanity. Bantam Spectra advance uncorrected proof from 1995 precedes the First Hardcover edition & is thus considered the true first by collectors. Same cover art as the 1995 first hardcover.

“Useful, helpful, absorbing, entertaining. Whether you are interested in weaponry or, like me, researching details for a novel, this is the book for you.” Helen Hollick, Amazon customer. Your search for a book that will feed your passion for and deepen your knowledge of swordsmanship ends here. Guy Windsor’s Swordfighting offers insight into this magnificent historical European martial art: you will find answers to your burning questions about swordsmanship, its theory and practice. This carefully crafted book provides essential information on diverse topics with piercing clarity. “Whether you are a writer or game-maker seeking the kind of information I sought while writing The Baroque Cycle, or just a general reader with an interest in the arts to which Guy Windsor has dedicated his career, you should find much that is rewarding in these pages.” From the foreword by Neal Stephenson, New York Times bestselling and multi-award-winning author. Made up of a selection of Guy’s essays and articles, with a great deal of brand new material, this engaging and revealing book makes this complex subject accessible, enabling you to deep-dive into — Benefits of training Types of weapons Sword fighting principles Historical accuracy If you are an actor, writer or games designer creating or writing fight scenes, this book provides cutting-edge research on our European martial arts heritage. You will also discover the dos and don’ts of producing a stunningly realistic sword fight. Swordfighting is not a training manual. For technical instruction on specific swordsmanship styles, you should buy The Medieval Longsword and The Duellist's Companion.

Mass Market Paperback with 1152 pgs. Copyright 1999. Cryptonomicon is really three novels in one, featuring healthy portions of World War II adventure, cryptography, and high tech finance, with treasure hunting thrown in for good measure..But that's only half of it. A remarkable epic adventure of soldiers, secrets, gold, spies, codemakers and codbreakers, conspiracies, power; pirates, prisoners, lovers and great escapes from one of the boldest imaginations in comtempory fiction.

Decades into our future, a brilliant nanotechnologist named John Percival Hackworth has just broken the rigorous moral code of his tribe, the powerful Neo-Victorians. He's made an illicit copy of a state-of-the-art interactive device called a young lady's illustrated primer, designed to raise a girl capable of thinking for herself. Unfortunately, for Hackworth, he loses his smuggled copy to a gang of street urchins in a mugging. One of the young thugs presents the primer to his little sister, Nell and suddenly her life - and perhaps the whole future of humanity - is about to be decoded and reprogrammed...vividly imagined, stunningly prophetic, and epic in scope, "The Diamond Age" is a major novel from one of the most visionary writers of our time.

An urgent, on-the-ground look at some of the “new American radicals” who have laid everything on the line to build a stronger climate justice movementThe science is clear: catastrophic climate change, by any humane definition, is upon us. At the same time, the fossil-fuel industry has doubled down, economically and politically, on business as usual. We face an unprecedented situation—a radical situation. As an individual of conscience, how will you respond?In 2010, journalist Wen Stephenson woke up to the true scale and urgency of the catastrophe bearing down on humanity, starting with the poorest and most vulnerable everywhere, and confronted what he calls “the spiritual crisis at the heart of the climate crisis.” Inspired by others who refused to retreat into various forms of denial and fatalism, he walked away from his career in mainstream media and became an activist, joining those working to build a transformative movement for climate justice in America.In What We’re Fighting for Now Is Each Other, Stephenson tells his own story and offers an up-close, on-the-ground look at some of the remarkable and courageous people—those he calls “new American radicals”—who have laid everything on the line to build and inspire this fast-growing movement: old-school environmentalists and young climate-justice organizers, frontline community leaders and Texas tar-sands blockaders, Quakers and college students, evangelicals and Occupiers. Most important, Stephenson pushes beyond easy labels to understand who these people really are, what drives them, and what they’re ultimately fighting for. He argues that the movement is less like environmentalism as we know it and more like the great human-rights and social-justice struggles of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, from abolitionism to civil rights. It’s a movement for human solidarity.This is a fiercely urgent and profoundly spiritual journey into the climate-justice movement at a critical moment—in search of what climate justice, at this late hour, might yet mean.

Zodiac, the brilliant second novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the The Baroque Cycle and Snow Crash, is now available from Grove Press. Meet Sangamon Taylor, a New Age Sam Spade who sports a wet suit instead of a trench coat and prefers Jolt from the can to Scotch on the rocks. He knows about chemical sludge the way he knows about evil—all too intimately. And the toxic trail he follows leads to some high and foul places. Before long Taylor’s house is bombed, his every move followed, he’s adopted by reservation Indians, moves onto the FBI’s most wanted list, makes up with his girlfriend, and plays a starring role in the near-assassination of a presidential candidate. Closing the case with the aid of his burnout roommate, his tofu-eating comrades, three major networks, and a range of unconventional weaponry, Sangamon Taylor pulls off the most startling caper in Boston Harbor since the Tea Party.