Neal Stephenson

Neal Town Stephenson (October 31, 1959, Fort Meade, Maryland), known as Neal Stephenson, is a science fiction author who, above all, writes about computers and computer-related technologies, such as nanotechnology. He doesn't belong to the cyberpunk school of writers, like William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. He occasionally uses the pseudonym Stephen Bury.

Her novels are generally categorized as speculative fiction, although they also receive labels such as science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk, post-cyberpunk, or baroque. Some of the recurring themes in Stephenson's novels are mathematics, cryptography, philosophy, currency, and the history of science. He also occasionally writes non-fiction articles about technology in periodicals such as Wired magazine.^{[citation needed ]}

Personal life

Born October 31, 1959, in Fort Meade, Maryland, United States, Stephenson comes from a family of engineers and scientists. His father was a professor of electrical engineering, while his paternal grandfather was a physics professor. His mother worked in a biochemistry laboratory, and his maternal grandfather was a biochemistry professor. Stephenson's family moved to Champaign-Urbana, Illinois in 1960, and in 1966 to Ames, Iowa. He graduated from Ames High School in 1977.

Stephenson studied at Boston University, majoring first in physics and then geography, after discovering that doing so would allow him to spend more time using the University's mainframe. He graduated in 1981. Since 1984, Stephenson has lived mostly in the Pacific Northwest and currently resides in Seattle with his family.

Work

Although he has some previous novels, such as The Big U (1984) and Zodiac: the ecological “thriller” (1988), fame came to him in the early 1980s. 1990s with the novel Snow Crash (1992), where he mixes memes, computer viruses and other high-tech motifs with Sumerian mythology in a style that, in a fun way, imitates the recently fashionable cyberpunk years before with the publication of Neuromancer.

The list of his later novels includes titles such as: Interface (1994), Diamond Age: Illustrated Primer for Young Girls (1995), which deals with a future in which nanotechnology is widespread and which won the Hugo and Locus awards, La web de araña (1996), and Cryptonomicon (1999), a novel that mixes scientific speculation in the fields of computers and cryptography in the historical context of World War II and the alleged attempt in the present to create a data haven, and which allowed it to win back the Locus and widespread favor with readers.

More recently he has returned to the same line of scientific-historical speculation, with the novels of the «baroque cycle»: Quicksilver (2003), La Confusión (2004) and El Sistema del Mundo (2004). The World System won the Prometheus Prize in 2005.

With the release of Azogue, Stephenson launched the Metaweb (home page of the version partially preserved by the Wayback Machine as of April 5, 2006), a wiki in which the ideas and the historical period explored in the novel are discussed. As of April 25, 2007 this wiki is not active.

In 2008, Stephenson published a novel titled Anathema, a very long and detailed work that would fall under the category of speculative fiction. It is set in a world similar to Earth (perhaps an alternate reality), and addresses metaphysical themes.

In May 2010, the production of a multimedia fiction project called The Mongoliad was announced, which would be centered around a narrative thread written by Stephenson and other speculative fiction authors.

REAMDE was released on September 20, 2011. The title is a pun on the well-known README filename. Set in the present day, this thriller centers on a group of MMORPG developers caught between Chinese cybercriminals, Islamic terrorists and the Russian mafia.

On August 7, 2012, Stephenson released a collection of previously published essays and other fictional articles, titled Some Remarks: Essays and Other Writing. This collection also includes a new essay and novella created specifically for this volume.

In 2012, Stephenson launched a Kickstarter campaign for CLANG, a realistic fantasy sword fighting game. The game uses motion control to provide an immersive experience. The game will contain its own world and storyline. The campaign goal of raising half a million dollars was reached by July 9, 2012 on Kickstarter. Money for the project ran out in September 2013, and the project to develop the game ended in September 2014, with the game unfinished.

In late 2013, Stephenson announced that he was working on several volumes of a historical novel that could "have a lot to do with scientific and technological themes, and how these interact with characters and civilizations during a certain period of time. History". However, around the same time, she focused on a science fiction novel, Seveneves, which she finished a year later and was published in May 2015.

In May 2016, during a video discussion with Bill Gates, Stephenson revealed that he had just submitted the manuscript for a new historical novel—"a book of time travel"—co-written with Nicole Galland, one of the co-authors of Mongoliad. This book was released as The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. in June 2017.

Works

Fiction

• The Great U (1984)
• Zodiac: the ecological “thriller” (1988)
• Snow Crash (1992) - Nominated for the BSFA Award in 1993 and the Arthur C Award. Clarke in 1994
• Interfaz (1994) with J. Frederick George, as "Stephen Bury"
• The era of diamond - illustrated manual for young girls (1995) - Winner of the Hugo Prize and the Locus Prize in 1996, nominated for the Nébula Award, the John W. Campbell Memorial Prize and the Arthur C Award. Clarke
• The spider web (1996) with J. Frederick George, as "Stephen Bury"
• Criptonomic (1999) - Winner of the Locus Prize, nominated for the Hugo Prize and the Arthur C Award. Clarke in 2000, winner of the Prometheus Prize: Hall of Fame in 2013. It is possible to find this work divided into 3 volumes:

1. Enigma code (Criptonomicon 1)
2. The Pontifex Code (Criptonomicon 2)
3. Aretusa code (Criptonomicon 3)

• Baroque Cycle:

1. 'Azogue (2003), published in Spanish in three volumes (Azogue, The King of the Vagrants and Odalisca) - Winner of the Arthur C Prize. Clarke of 2004, nominated for the 2004 Locus Award
2. Confusion (2004), published in Spanish in two volumes (Confusion I and Confusion II ) - Locus Award Winner 2005
3. The World System (2004), published in three volumes in 2006 (The Gold of Solomon, Currency and The World System) - Winner of the Locus Prize and the Prometheus Prize in 2005, nominated for the Arthur C Prize. Clarke

• Analyze (2008) - Winner of the 2009 Locus Award nominated for the 2008 BSFA Award and the Hugo Prize and Arthur C Award. Clarke in 2009
• The Mongoliad (2010–2012)
• REAMDE (2011)
• Seveneves (2015)
• The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. (2017) with Nicole Galland
• Fall; or Dodge in Hell (2019)
• New Found Land: The Long Haul (2021) with Austin Grossman and Sean Stewart. Audiobook.
• Termination shock (2021)

Nonfiction

• At the beginning was the command line (2003) ISBN 978-84-932-9822-7