Things that are awesome, Vol. 9

Neal Stephenson.

Writer of truly mind-blowing, genre-bending, sci-fi/adventure novels (three of which are a series set in the 18th Century during the careers of Hooke, Newton, and Leibniz. Hard to get more genre bending than that). His novels are heavily invested in:

• nanotechnology (The Diamond Age),
• cyberspace (Snow Crash, which features the main character named "Hiro Protagonist"),
• cryptology (Cryptonomicon),
• calculus and the rise of a money economy (The Baroque Cycle, a massive trilogy),
  
• mathematics & physics (Anathem),
• and even alchemy (see the character "Enoch Root").

The books are all challenging, by turns intricate and hilarious. I was pleasantly surprised to see how Cryptonomicon actually involves the descendants of the main characters in The Baroque Cycle (Shaftoe, and actually two generations of Waterhouses). Each book has its easter eggs, though I will admit that in every case besides Snow Crash, I thought the books were hard to catch onto initially.

They pay back the effort tenfold. They're loooong (latest one is 900+), which means they got all sorts of sciency fictiony adventury goodness in them--and he writes them longhand, using a fountain pen. What's more, he looks badass, especially for a writer of incredibly "nerdy" books.

His next one is due out in 2011!