<i>The System of the World,</i> the third and concluding volume of Neal Stephenson's shelf-bending Baroque Cycle (<i>Quicksilver</i> and <i>The Confusion</i>), brings the epic historical saga to its thrilling - and truly awe-inspiring - conclusion.<br /><br />Set in the early 18th century and featuring a diverse cast of characters that includes alchemists, philosophers, mathematicians, spies, thieves, pirates, and royalty, <i>The System of the World</i> follows Daniel Waterhouse, an unassuming philosopher and confidant to some of the most brilliant minds of the age, as he returns to England to try and repair the rift between geniuses Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. After reluctantly leaving his family in Boston, Waterhouse arrives in England and is almost killed by a mysterious Infernal Device. Having been away from the war-decimated country for two decades, Waterhouse quickly learns that although many things have changed, there is still violent revolution simmering just beneath the surface of seemingly civilized society. With Queen Anne deathly ill and Tories and Whigs jostling for political supremacy, Waterhouse and Newton vow to figure out who is trying to kill certain scientists and decipher the riddle behind the legend of King Solomon's gold, a mythical hoard of precious metal with miraculous properties.<br /><br />Arguably one of the most ambitious -- and most researched -- stories ever written, Stephenson's Baroque Cycle is set in one of the most turbulent and exciting times in human history. Filled with wild adventure, political intrigue, social upheaval, civilization-changing discoveries, cabalistic mysticism, and even a little romance, this massive saga is worth its weight in (Solomon's) gold. <br /><i>Paul Goat Allen</i>

In the year 1689, a cabal of Barbary galley slaves -- including one Jack Shaftoe, aka King of the Vagabonds, aka Half-Cocked Jack -- devises a daring plan to win freedom and fortune. A great adventure ensues -- a perilous race for an enormous prize of silver ... nay, gold ... nay, legendary gold. In Europe, the exquisite and resourceful Eliza, Countess de la Zeur, is stripped of her immense personal fortune by France's most dashing privateer. Penniless and at risk from those who desire either her or her head (or both), she is caught up in a web of international intrigue, even as she desperately seeks the return of her most precious possession. Meanwhile, Newton and Leibniz continue to propound their grand theories as their infamous rivalry intensifies, stubborn alchemy does battle with the natural sciences, dastardly plots are set in motion ... and Daniel Waterhouse seeks passage to the Massachusetts colony in hopes of escaping the madness into which his world has descended. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

Four decades ago, Richard Forthrast, the black sheep of an Iowa family, fled to a wild and lonely mountainous corner of British Columbia to avoid the draft. Smuggling backpack loads of high-grade marijuana across the border into Northern Idaho, he quickly amassed an enormous and illegal fortune. With plenty of time and money to burn, he became addicted to an online fantasy game in which opposing factions battle for power and treasure in a vast cyber realm. Like many serious gamers, he began routinely purchasing virtual gold pieces and other desirables from Chinese gold farmers—young professional players in Asia who accumulated virtual weapons and armor to sell to busy American and European buyers.

For Richard, the game was the perfect opportunity to launder his aging hundred dollar bills and begin his own high-tech start up—a venture that has morphed into a Fortune 500 computer gaming group, Corporation 9592, with its own super successful online role-playing game, T’Rain. But the line between fantasy and reality becomes dangerously blurred when a young gold farmer accidently triggers a virtual war for dominance—and Richard is caught at the center.

In this edgy, 21st century tale, Neal Stephenson, one of the most ambitious and prophetic writers of our time, returns to the terrain of his cyberpunk masterpieces Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon , leading readers through the looking glass and into the dark heart of imagination.

A gripping and page-turning thriller that explores themes of power, information, secrecy and war in the twentieth century. From the author of the three-volume historical epic 'The Baroque Cycle' and Seveneves.

In his legendary, sprawling masterpiece, Neal Stephenson hacks into the secret histories of nations and the private obsessions of men, decrypting with dazzling virtuosity the forces that shaped this century.

In 1942, Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse - a mathematical genius and young Captain in the U.S. Navy - is assigned to Detachment 2702, an outfit so secret that only a handful of people know it exists. Some of those people have names like Churchill and Roosevelt.

Their mission is to keep the Nazis ignorant of the fact that Allied Intelligence has cracked the enemy's fabled Enigma code. Waterhouse is flung into a cryptographic chess match against his German counterpart - one where every move determines the fate of thousands.

In the present day, Waterhouse's crypto-hacker grandson, Randy, is attempting to create a "data haven" in Southeast Asia where encrypted data can be stored and exchanged free of repression and scrutiny. Joining forces with the tough-as-nails Amy, Randy attempts tosecretly salvage a sunken Nazi submarine that holds the key to keeping the dream of a data haven afloat.

But their scheme brings to light a massive conspiracy with its roots in Detachment 2702 - and an unbreakable Nazi code called Arethusa. There are two ways this could go: towards unimaginable riches and a future of personal and digital liberty - or towards a totalitarian nightmare...

Profound and prophetic, hypnotic and hyperactive, Cryptonomicon is a work of great art, thought and creative daring, the product of a ingenious imagination working with white-hot intensity.

Co by się stało, gdyby nastąpił koniec świata?

Kiedy kataklizm przemienia Ziemię w tykająca bombę zegarową, rozpoczyna się rozpaczliwy wyścig z tym, co nieuchronne. Zostaje opracowany ambitny plan, który ma zagwarantować przetrwanie ludzkości poza obszarem ziemskiej atmosfery, ale na nieustraszonych pionierów czyhają nieprzewidziane niebezpieczeństwa. Ostatecznie zostaje ich dosłownie garstka…

Pięć tysięcy lat później ich potomkowie – trzy miliardy ludzi zaliczające się do siedmiu odrębnych ras – rozpoczynają kolejną zuchwałą podróż w nieznane, na obcą planetę, którą kosmiczna katastrofa i upływ czasu zmieniły nie do poznania. Na Ziemię.

Neal Stephenson – obdarzony oszałamiającą wyobraźnią literacki geniusz i wizjoner – łączy naukę, filozofię, technikę, psychologię i literaturę w arcydziele prozy spekulatywnej, w którym wizja przyszłości jest zarazem niecodzienna i upiornie znajoma. Podejmuje ważne współczesne idee i niewiarygodne wyzwania w absolutnie wspaniałej sadze – śmiałej, wciągającej i zapierającej dech w piersi.

Kiedy John Hackworth po raz pierwszy dopuścił się przestępstwa, nawet nie zdawał sobie sprawy, co zapoczątkował i w jak gęstą sieć intryg się wplątał. W świecie, w którym wszystko jest na wyciągnięcie ręki, gdzie domowe kompilatory materii potrafią stworzyć niemal każdy żądany przedmiot, rozwój techniki determinuje los jednostki. O sile decyduje przynależność do grupy i umiejętność szybkiego reagowania na nadarzające się okazje. Ale świat ten skazany jest na zagładę. Jego przyszłość znalazła się w rękach małej dziewczynki, która przypadkowo weszła w posiadanie pewnej wielce istotnej księgi...

Neal Stephenson hacks into the secret histories of nations and the private obsessions of men, decrypting with dazzling virtuosity the forces that have shaped the past century. Weaving together the cracking of the Axis codes during WWII and the quest to establish a free South East Asian 'data haven' for digital information in the present, Cryptonomicon explores themes of power, information, secrecy and war in the twentieth century in a gripping and page-turning thriller.

The first novel to be released in The Foreworld Saga, The Mongoliad: Book One , is an epic-within-an-epic, taking place in 13th century. In it, a small band of warriors and mystics raise their swords to save Europe from a bloodthirsty Mongol invasion. Inspired by their leader (an elder of an order of warrior monks), they embark on a perilous journey and uncover the history of hidden knowledge and conflict among powerful secret societies that had been shaping world events for millennia.

But the saga reaches the modern world via a circuitous route. In the late 19th century, Sir Richard F. Burton, an expert on exotic languages and historical swordsmanship, is approached by a mysterious group of English martial arts aficionados about translating a collection of long-lost manuscripts. Burton dies before his work is finished, and his efforts were thought lost until recently rediscovered by a team of amateur archaeologists in the ruins of a mansion in Trieste, Italy. From this collection of arcana, the incredible tale of The Mongoliad was recreated.

Full of high adventure, unforgettable characters, and unflinching battle scenes, The Mongoliad ignites a dangerous quest where willpower and blades are tested and the scope of world-building is redefined.

A note on this edition: The Mongoliad began as a social media experiment, combining serial story-telling with a unique level of interaction between authors and audience during the creative process. Since its original iteration, The Mongoliad has been restructured, edited, and rewritten under the supervision of its authors to create a more cohesive reading experience and will be published as a trilogy of novels. This edition is the definitive edition and is the authors' preferred text.

Reviews:
“This off-beat alternate history of Eurasia could be your new obsession.” –i09.com

“This story is pure adventure, with much swordplay and swashbuckling.” –Kirkus Reviews

“A terrifically engaging book that pulled me along at least as quickly as The Hunger Games . Think Lord of the Rings without all that pesky fantasy…Five frighteningly accurate historical sword fights out of five.” –Fanboy Comics

Hieroglyph-Inspired by New York Times bestselling author Neal Stephenson, an anthology of stories, set in the near future that reignites the iconic and optimistic visions of the golden age of science fiction. A remarkable anthology uniting twenty of today's leading thinkers, writers, and visionaries, among them Cory Doctorow, Gregory Benford, Elizabeth Bear, Bruce Sterling, and Neal Stephenson, to contribute works of "techno-optimism" that challenge us to dream boldly and do Big Stuff. Engaging, mind-bending, provocative, and imaginative, Hieroglyph offers a forward-thinking approach to the intersection of art and technology that has the power to change our world.
Contents:
Foreword (Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future) • essay by Lawrence M. Krauss
Preface: Innovation Starvation (Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future) • essay by Neal Stephenson
Introduction: A Blueprint for Better Dreams • essay by Kathryn Cramer and Ed Finn
Atmosphaera Incognita (2013) / novelette by Neal Stephenson
Girl in Wave: Wave in Girl (2014) / novelette by Kathleen Ann Goonan
By the Time We Get to Arizona (2014) / novelette by Madeline Ashby
The Man Who Sold the Moon (2014) / novella by Cory Doctorow
Johnny Appledrone vs. the FAA (2014) / novelette by Lee Konstantinou
Degrees of Freedom (2014) / novelette by Karl Schroeder
Two Scenarios for the Future of Solar Energy (2014) / short story by Annalee Newitz
A Hotel in Antarctica (2014) / novelette by Geoffrey A. Landis
Periapsis (2014) / novelette by James L. Cambias
The Man Who Sold the Stars (2013) / novelette by Gregory Benford
Entanglement (2014) / novella by Vandana Singh
Elephant Angels (2014) / novelette by Brenda Cooper
Covenant (2014) / short story by Elizabeth Bear
Quantum Telepathy (2014) / novelette by Rudy Rucker
Transition Generation (2014) / short story by David Brin
The Day It All Ended (2014) / short story by Charlie Jane Anders
Tall Tower (2014) / novelette by Bruce Sterling
Science and Science Fiction: An Interview with Paul Davies • interview of Paul Davies (1946-) • interview by uncredited
.

From bestselling author Neal Stephenson and critically acclaimed historical and contemporary commercial novelist Nicole Galland comes a captivating and complex near-future thriller combining history, science, magic, mystery, intrigue, and adventure that questions the very foundations of the modern world.

When Melisande Stokes, an expert in linguistics and languages, accidently meets military intelligence operator Tristan Lyons in a hallway at Harvard University, it is the beginning of a chain of events that will alter their lives and human history itself. The young man from a shadowy government entity approaches Mel, a low-level faculty member, with an incredible offer. The only condition: she must sign a nondisclosure agreement in return for the rather large sum of money.

Tristan needs Mel to translate some very old documents, which, if authentic, are earth-shattering. They prove that magic actually existed and was practiced for centuries. But the arrival of the scientific revolution and the Age of Enlightenment weakened its power and endangered its practitioners. Magic stopped working altogether in 1851, at the time of the Great Exhibition at London’s Crystal Palace—the world’s fair celebrating the rise of industrial technology and commerce. Something about the modern world "jams" the "frequencies" used by magic, and it’s up to Tristan to find out why.

And so the Department of Diachronic Operations—D.O.D.O. —gets cracking on its real mission: to develop a device that can bring magic back, and send Diachronic Operatives back in time to keep it alive . . . and meddle with a little history at the same time. But while Tristan and his expanding operation master the science and build the technology, they overlook the mercurial—and treacherous—nature of the human heart.

Written with the genius, complexity, and innovation that characterize all of Neal Stephenson’s work and steeped with the down-to-earth warmth and humor of Nicole Galland’s storytelling style, this exciting and vividly realized work of science fiction will make you believe in the impossible, and take you to places—and times—beyond imagining.

John Percival Hackworth is a nanotech engineer on the rise when he steals a copy of "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" for his daughter Fiona. The primer is actually a super computer built with nanotechnology that was designed to educate Lord Finkle-McGraw's daughter and to teach her how to think for herself in the stifling neo-Victorian society. But Hackworth loses the primer before he can give it to Fiona, and now the "book" has fallen into the hands of young Nell, an underprivileged girl whose life is about to change.

Hiro Protagoniste est le plus grand sabreur du monde. Dans l'univers réel et dans le Métavers, un univers virtuel grandiosement conçu au long de la Rue qui fait un bon milliard de kilomètres (virtuels) de long et où tout ce qui compte possède une résidence (virtuelle). Hiro est aussi un programmeur réputé, l'un des créateurs de Métavers. Mais il lui arrive de livrer des pizzas pour le compte de la branche commerciale de la Mafia.

Y.T., quinze ans, blonde, est kourier. C'est-à-dire qu'elle transporte sur sa planche à roulettes version autoroute tout ce qu'on veut bien lui confier. Elle est du genre dégourdi, voire redoutable.

Quand ces deux-là se retrouvent, sous l’œil de l'oncle Enzo, parrain suprême, pour lutter contre une drogue qui ravage à la fois la réalité virtuelle et l'univers réel, cela promet...

Un monde de l'avenir bardé de nanotechnologies, d'univers virtuels, de réseaux neuronaux et d'intelligences qui s'efforcent d'être le plus artificiel possible.

Une petite fille qui reçoit une éducation singulière grâce à un Livre Mentor qui raconte des histoires.

Et tout cela dans une Chine de l'avenir partagée entre les territoires des sectes, les enclaves des multinationales et les espaces électroniques.

New York Times BestsellerA New York Times Notable BookThe #1 New York Times bestselling author of Seveneves, Anathem, Reamde, and Cryptonomicon returns with a wildly inventive and entertaining science fiction thriller—Paradise Lost by way of Philip K. Dick—that unfolds in the near future, in parallel worlds.In his youth, Richard “Dodge” Forthrast founded Corporation 9592, a gaming company that made him a multibillionaire. Now in his middle years, Dodge appreciates his comfortable, unencumbered life, managing his myriad business interests, and spending time with his beloved niece Zula and her young daughter, Sophia.One beautiful autumn day, while he undergoes a routine medical procedure, something goes irrevocably wrong. Dodge is pronounced brain dead and put on life support, leaving his stunned family and close friends with difficult decisions. Long ago, when a much younger Dodge drew up his will, he directed that his body be given to a cryonics company now owned by enigmatic tech entrepreneur Elmo Shepherd. Legally bound to follow the directive despite their misgivings, Dodge’s family has his brain scanned and its data structures uploaded and stored in the cloud, until it can eventually be revived.In the coming years, technology allows Dodge’s brain to be turned back on. It is an achievement that is nothing less than the disruption of death itself. An eternal afterlife—the Bitworld—is created, in which humans continue to exist as digital souls.But this brave new immortal world is not the Utopia it might first seem . . .Fall, or Dodge in Hell is pure, unadulterated fun: a grand drama of analog and digital, man and machine, angels and demons, gods and followers, the finite and the eternal. In this exhilarating epic, Neal Stephenson raises profound existential questions and touches on the revolutionary breakthroughs that are transforming our future. Combining the technological, philosophical, and spiritual in one grand myth, he delivers a mind-blowing speculative literary saga for the modern age.

Four decades ago, Richard Forthrast, the black sheep of an Iowa family, fled to a wild and lonely mountainous corner of British Columbia to avoid the draft. Smuggling backpack loads of high-grade marijuana across the border into Northern Idaho, he quickly amassed an enormous and illegal fortune. With plenty of time and money to burn, he became addicted to an online fantasy game in which opposing factions battle for power and treasure in a vast cyber realm. Like many serious gamers, he began routinely purchasing virtual gold pieces and other desirables from Chinese gold farmers—young professional players in Asia who accumulated virtual weapons and armor to sell to busy American and European buyers.

For Richard, the game was the perfect opportunity to launder his aging hundred dollar bills and begin his own high-tech start up—a venture that has morphed into a Fortune 500 computer gaming group, Corporation 9592, with its own super successful online role-playing game, T’Rain. But the line between fantasy and reality becomes dangerously blurred when a young gold farmer accidently triggers a virtual war for dominance—and Richard is caught at the center.

In this edgy, 21st century tale, Neal Stephenson, one of the most ambitious and prophetic writers of our time, returns to the terrain of his cyberpunk masterpieces Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon , leading readers through the looking glass and into the dark heart of imagination.

This is "the Word" -- one man's word, certainly -- about the art (and artifice) of the state of our computer-centric existence. And considering that the "one man" is Neal Stephenson, "the hacker Hemingway" ( Newsweek ) -- acclaimed novelist, pragmatist, seer, nerd-friendly philosopher, and nationally bestselling author of groundbreaking literary works ( Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, etc., etc.) -- the word is well worth hearing. Mostly well-reasoned examination and partial rant, Stephenson's In the Beginning... was the Command Line is a thoughtful, irreverent, hilarious treatise on the cyber-culture past and present; on operating system tyrannies and downloaded popular revolutions; on the Internet, Disney World, Big Bangs, not to mention the meaning of life itself.

Anathem, the latest invention by the New York Times bestselling author of Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle, is a magnificent a work of great scope, intelligence, and imagination that ushers readers into a recognizable -- yet strangely inverted -- world.Fraa Erasmas is a young avout living in the Concent of Saunt Edhar, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the outside "saecular" world by ancient stone, honored traditions, and complex rituals. Over the centuries, cities and governments have risen and fallen beyond the concent's walls. Three times during history's darkest epochs violence born of superstition and ignorance has invaded and devastated the cloistered mathic community. Yet the avout have always managed to adapt in the wake of catastrophe, becoming out of necessity even more austere and less dependent on technology and material things. And Erasmas has no fear of the outside -- the Extramuros -- for the last of the terrible times was long, long ago.Now, in celebration of the week-long, once-in-a-decade rite of Apert, the fraas and suurs prepare to venture beyond the concent's gates -- at the same time opening them wide to welcome the curious "extras" in. During his first Apert as a fraa, Erasmas eagerly anticipates reconnecting with the landmarks and family he hasn't seen since he was "collected." But before the week is out, both the existence he abandoned and the one he embraced will stand poised on the brink of cataclysmic change.Powerful unforeseen forces jeopardize the peaceful stability of mathic life and the established ennui of the Extramuros -- a threat that only an unsteady alliance of saecular and avout can oppose -- as, one by one, Erasmas and his colleagues, teachers, and friends are summoned forth from the safety of the concent in hopes of warding off global disaster. Suddenly burdened with a staggering responsibility, Erasmas finds himself a major player in a drama that will determine the future of his world -- as he sets out on an extraordinary odyssey that will carry him to the most dangerous, inhospitable corners of the planet . . . and beyond.

http://jadijadi.github.io/snowcrash/


این کتاب در تاریخ کتاب های آینده‌نگر جایگاه ویژه‌ای داره. مفاهیم خیلی زیادی رو به درستی پیش‌بینی کرده (مثلا اصطلاح متاورس، آواتار و .. همه از ابداعات این کتاب هستن) و همزمان ژانر پست سایبرپانک اون، جذابیت های خاصی به داستان داده. در این ژانر، دنیای «های تک، لو لایف» یا همون زندگی سطح پایین در جهانی پر از تکنولوژی با قهرمانی ترکیب می شه که سعی در حل مشکلات داره. مشکلاتی ناشی از به تباهی رفتن جهان.

About twenty years ago Jobs and Wozniak, the founders of Apple, came up with the very strange idea of selling information processing machines for use in the home. The business took off, and its founders made a lot of money and received the credit they deserved for being daring visionaries. But around the same time, Bill Gates and Paul Allen came up with an idea even stranger and more fantastical: selling computer operating systems . This was much weirder than the idea of Jobs and Wozniak. A computer at least had some sort of physical reality to it. It came in a box, you could open it up and plug it in and watch lights blink. An operating system had no tangible incarnation at all. It arrived on a disk, of course, but the disk was, in effect, nothing more than the box that the OS came in. The product itself was a very long string of ones and zeroes that, when properly installed and coddled, gave you the ability to manipulate other very long strings of ones and zeroes. Even those few who actually understood what a computer operating system was were apt to think of it as a fantastically arcane engineering prodigy, like a breeder reactor or a U-2 spy plane, and not something that could ever be (in the parlance of high-tech) "productized."

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© 1999 by Neal Stephenson