The Sword and Laser discussion

Well I'm about 80% done now. It's definitely one I have had a hard time putting down. However to be completely fair to those considering this for an alternate read it's really not a sword or a laser book. It's more of a contemporary spy/techno thriller.

I think you are right. Though it has some technology, it doesn`t qualify as science fiction of the present, or the near term future, because the topic is firmly in the spy thriller category. The tecno part is really an aside. It`s like saying that Dan Brown`s novels are about the life of a writer... true, but not the point.

Patrick wrote: "Well I'm about 80% done now. It's definitely one I have had a hard time putting down. However to be completely fair to those considering this for an alternate read it's really not a sword or a la..."

Alfredo wrote: "I think you are right. Though it has some technology, it doesn`t qualify as science fiction of the present, or the near term future, because the topic is firmly in the spy thriller category. The te..."

What about Daemon or FreedomTM?

What about Daemon or FreedomTM?

Well the Science Fiction or not question is probably a taxonomic rat hole of indefinite depth. So let me back off of my previous statement a little. Let me say instead that I think the proportion of technological speculation to action in REAMDE is small compared to Deamon/FreedomTM.

As a side note, Jonathan Strahan pronounces it 'Reamed' on the Coode St podcast.

Tamahome wrote: "As a side note, Jonathan Strahan pronounces it 'Reamed' on the Coode St podcast."

But Stephenson says it "Reem Dee"

Veronica wrote: But Stephenson says it "Reem Dee""

What does he know.

Veronica wrote: "Tamahome wrote: "As a side note, Jonathan Strahan pronounces it 'Reamed' on the Coode St podcast."

But Stephenson says it "Reem Dee""

Privileging the views of the author over the reader's own interpretation of the text is so Modernist. Get with the post-structuralist program -- l'auteur est mort.

Sean wrote: "l'auteur est mort."

He did mention he was feeling a bit sick, but I wouldn't go that far.

Will the title in French be L'alésage?

Tamahome wrote: "Will the title in French be L'alésage?"

I was thinking Reamdé.

The novels worth of reading I've done so far seems like it's more of a crime novel than sci-fi, I wouldn't even say it's speculative fiction, but I guess that could change?

I suggest Stephenson has his own very particular sub-genre: Neal-Punk.

Labeling one of his books alternate history/speculative fiction/spy thriller/ or cyber punk just doesn't seem to do it justice. His writing style is so distinctive and quirky it's really difficult to pin his work down. Call me a fanboy, but I've been reeled in by him again. Reamde is another page turner.

Veronica wrote: "What about Daemon or FreedomTM? ..."

I think those have a lot more, very real, technology used in a new way and central to the plot. For me, I think the big difference is that the technology in Reamde is not central to the plot, not in the way that it is in Cryptonomicon or Snow Crash. It is just there, used when needed, but could have been subsituted easily by something else...

It seems like the only lasers in this book were in the DVD players. This is definitely not science fiction.

http://www.denverpost.com/recommended...
Stephenson has pretty much admitted that this isn't a sci-fi book. Which is strange since Amazon still has it under the sci-fi section in its classification.

From the article ...
Publisher materials describe "Reamde" as Stephenson's most accessible work. Speaking by phone from his home in Seattle, he said "accessible," in this case, was "just a way of explaining to people that it's not science fiction. There's still a segment of the reading population that recoils from anything branded as science fiction, and I have a reputation of a guy who writes that."

Genre divisions in publishing aren't about the content of the book -- it's about getting stores to place merchandise where people who are interested will find it. Stephenson's fans are SF readers, so Reamde and the Baroque Cycle get shelved in SF; Michael Crichton was popular with general audiences, so Jurassic Park gets shelved with general fiction instead of SF; people think of Stephen King as a horror author, so The Dark Tower gets shelved with horror even though it's fantasy.

This is why authors who work in more than one genre will often use different names in each one.

It's certainly not Laser, but I view this as fitting into science fiction broadly. It relies on technology, has some pretty geeky sections on Internet use, and is projecting the future of MMORPG. In other words if cyberpunk falls under SciFi, then this book, for me, just barely falls into the scifi category, because it's laced with elements of cyberpunk.

i'm 65% into the book, can't put it down but I wouldn't call it Science Fiction either, it's a well done techno-thriller for geeks, a combination of Tom Clancy plus Robert Ludlum plus Stephenson unique styleand geek cred.
it's cyberpunk-ish, Neal-Punk is a good name or Geek Fiction instead of Science Fiction.
To answer the question Daemon or FreedomTM, these books have speculative Science we don't have today, unlike Reamde.
Veronica, did you see any AutoM8s or Razorbacks lately? How about the home-appliance sized micro-fabrication technology described in those books? 3D printing is still in it's hobbyist/infancy stages.

I definitely agree that this book is far from being sword or laser. It was a great book and i enjoyed reading it but its definitely not driven by SF or F elements.

The comparison with Daemon and FreedomTM isn't great because in both of those books the driving component is the rapid development of futuristic technology like artificial intelligence etc.

The difference is pretty marked as in Reamde the technology is just a sideline where modern day MMO technology is used in a way that is perfectly possible to do right now.

Actually Daniel Suarez has said that all the tech used in Daemon is off the shelf and possible today.

Yeah, this book didn't feel particularly sword or laser to me. It used the MMORPG as a vehicle to get the plot in motion, but I really wished it had used the game more than it did.

I have to agree that this book is not Sword or laser. It only barely touches on the MMORPG and it is more of a Hollywood type action thriller then anything else. I will say that it is overall a good read, even thought it does get a little bogged down in the middle, but about 70% of the way through the action is so intense that it is hard to put down until the end.

Tom wrote: "Actually Daniel Suarez has said that all the tech used in Daemon is off the shelf and possible today."

Everything seems like it is possible today except for the AR glasses, which are the the most important part of the dark net. Where is the computer controlling them? What is their power source? How are they able to detect what you are looking at and overlay an image on top of that? And the most important thing is how do they do all those things and still look like relatively normal sunglasses.

Andrew wrote: "Veronica wrote: But Stephenson says it "Reem Dee""

What does he know."

I have to agree with Veronica on the pronunciation. The title is "ReamDe" which most people would pronounce Ream Dee. If it were spelled "ReameD" then I could see the other point of view. And since the author has told you how to pronounce the name, I would go with that.

Domenico wrote: "Tom wrote: "Actually Daniel Suarez has said that all the tech used in Daemon is off the shelf and possible today.""

Yeah I do remember reading this but the point I was trying to make wasn't that the tech was impossible by modern day standards but that the tech was used to do new and exciting things and that it was the main thrust of the story line whereas in ReamDe it is a sideline to the real world action with MMORPG tech being used in a completely generic way to find things out that assisted in a run of the mill spy thriller situation.

Like I said not bad, just not particularly laser.

I just wanted to chime in to this and say that it fits as laser for me, because it was set "next Sunday AD" but I am a fan of stuff like John Ringo and Eric Flint and they often write stuff that feels pretty modern, but is just a little futurist.

I dunno if that makes sense or not.

I am half way through Reamde. I like it, but agree that its not science fiction. Neither is Cryptonomicon. Nothing in these books is not possible now. I feel the same way about Gibson's Pattern Recognition and Spook Country, both of which I enjoyed (haven't read Zero History yet- on my list). That didn't stop me from enjoying all of these, but just because they are written by science fiction authors doesn't make them science fiction.