Why start the conflict in an online role playing game? Do you play games like World of Warcraft? In addition to just being good thriller adventure stories, they frequently had interesting characters in them, which made them more interesting on a literary level. I can remember when I was a kid, I used to read the classic thrillers by people like Alistair MacLean, which I found highly enjoyable. When friends ask me about the book, I've been describing it as like a spy thriller. So when I was thinking about what to do next, I thought a nice little change in pace would be to delve into just plot, an aspect of the writer's art that I happen to enjoy, and wanted to have some fun with. I'm very pleased with how Anathem came out, I'm glad I wrote it, but I don't necessarily want every book I write to be that way from now on. I would say I went about as far as one could go in the direction of writing the big idea novel with Anathem. I think that's absolutely correct and it was a somewhat conscious decision. But REAMDE seems to skip that, and focus on adventure. So that was the idea that got it started, and then the various plot elements fell into place over the course of a few years as it was rattling around in the back of my mind.Ī lot of your books have a big idea -you're exploring cryptography, or nanotechnology, or quantum mechanics. But I got to thinking about what would happen if such a virus caused serious problems for a powerful person who decided they wanted to get even. Neal Stephenson: The idea had been kicking around in my head for a number of years, inspired by stories about teenage hackers in places like the Philippines inventing viruses. The following excerpts from that conversation are edited for length and clarity.ĭavid Ewalt: What inspired you to write this particular story? I recently spoke to Neal Stephenson about the inspiration for REAMDE, what he thinks about online games, and his plans for a next novel.

But the plot moves so quickly and smoothly that I read it in a fraction of the time it took to complete his last novel, the slightly shorter (but much heavier) Anathem. REAMDE is also characteristically lengthy at over 1,000 pages, it's Stephenson's longest book yet.

Reamde stephenson