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Boston

Saturday, 14 August 2004  |  cornelius schumacher

When going to Boston for the USENIX conference I started to read Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson in the plane from Frankfurt to Boston. I didn't know much about about the setting of the book, so it came as a surprise that the book starts with the execution of a woman at the Boston Common. Ten hours later I was standing at the place where Enoch the Red watches Jack Ketch doing his job.

Neal Stephenson has become one of my favorite authors in the last years. I own all of his book, including "Interface" and "The Cobweb". The only one I haven't read yet is "The Confusion", but that's only a matter of time. The book of Stephenson I like most is "Diamond Age", because it's one of these science fiction novels with such a non-scientific atmosphere. In this respect it's similar to The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. Well, and I have always loved books about books.