Google will move its operations overseas??? It's already done. Tax breaks and incentives for corporations and the wealthy such as those proposed by the Republican party have done little but further concentrate wealth at the top.

"Nathan Clevenger is the author of "iPad in the Enterprise: Developing and Deploying Business Applications" (Wiley Publishing, 2011) and has been developing mobile software for more than 12 years. In addition to his role as enterprise editor for iPhone Life magazine, he is the chief software Architect at ITR Mobility, a management and IT consulting firm."

What a load of crap.

Throughout my youth and into my college years, I was a huge fan of fiction. First school, then work and finally changing tastes forced a change in my reading habits and now I only digest a half-dozen or so novels a year, not counting my annual and much enjoyed revisitation of Moby-Dick. I picked up Cryptomonicon largely based on recommendations from the Slashdot crowd and considered it time and money well spent. Based on that experience, I read all three books of The Baroque Cycle and found the three together to be even more interesting and enjoyable than Cryptomonicon.

Now, I'm not a fan of speculative fiction and found some aspects of these four books to absurd, but not enough so to greatly alter my opinion (high) of Stephenson as a writer. His earlier works, however? Completely unreadable. What fantastical and obnoxious crap. I made it a few dozen pages into Snow Crash, The Diamond Age and Zodiac before finding much better ways to spend my time.

I wasn't even aware that Stephenson had released a new novel, but I came across Anathem while browsing a bookstore on the eve of my Fall vacation and decided to pick it up, expecting it to be a fun read as I think Stephenson's writing skills increase with each new book.

Long story short (too late?), Anathem earned a spot on one of my more visible bookshelves. Speculative fiction yes, but at least Stephenson doesn't disguise it as anything else.

I'll try not to question too much those who give up on The Baroque Cycle and Anathem, but for those readers out there who come from a background of speculative fiction, might I suggest stepping outside of the bubble for a while? I think a wide range of genres can only help one's appreciation for fiction - I know I'm happy that I set aside my prejudices against speculative fiction long enough to enjoy Stephenson's later works.