Oh man, I hope you've read/heard Snowcrash. Another great audiobook. Was my intro to Stephenson. I got probably half way through Cryptonomicon but I lost interest; need to revisit.
I'll check out that other modern fantasy stuff, thanks for the rec. I have a mixed take on Way of Kings so far. The writing is acceptable by my standards. I think it's moreso the high fantasy stuff that I can't get into as easily. I prefer more grounded fantasy a la ASOIAF. I've reread/listened to it 4 times now. A whole nother level of depth and nuance brought to the genre.
I'm right there with you! Snowcrash was my introduction to Stephenson, after a friend gave me a copy in ~1999/2000, and I went on to greedily consume all of his other early work. Then I tried Cryptonomicon, in paper form, and gave up on it part way through. Fast forward 15 years to the present, and I am just loving the audio version though, probably more than I enjoyed revisiting Snowcrash as a book on tape. I also really enjoyed Reamde and Anathem as audio books, although I'm fairly confident I would have hated the latter if I were reading it in print.
ASOIAF were great reads and great on audio. Enjoying the show too, less certain departures from the books. Given your preference for more grounded fantasy, I think Name of the Wind should be high on your list, although I agree with ZD that the sequel wasn't quite as good, but still good. That said, steer clear of Rothfuss' really bizarre companion piece "Slow Regard of Silent Things" where he indulges in the inner monologue of an insane girl/support character from the other books who lives in the sewers - unless you like never ending descriptive passages and the personification of inanimate objects. Yuck. Here's hoping the actual conclusion of the trilogy gets him back on the rails.
Abercrombie is way more violent and gritty, and less literary, but also a very immersing read. His characters are seriously great. Logan Nine Fingers, aka the Bloody Nine has got to be one of the greatest anti-heroes ever written, to say nothing of Glotka, Bayaz, Cosca, Shivers etc. Writing this is making me want to hole up in my office and reread The Blade Itself. (Brent Week's stuff is sort of in this same vein as well but not quite up to the level of Abercrombie for me.)
Cryptonomicom was pretty good, but I stopped reading his stuff after being bored partway through the first book of his Baroque Cycle. As for mature cyberpunk authors I've liked Gibson's recent work a lot more: solid atmospheric technothrillers.
I couldn't make it through the first of the Baroque Cycle either lol. Planning to retry as a book on tape at some point. Seems like too much of a loss to just give up on 2-3,000 pages of Stephenson's work. Changing gears, I totally agree that Gibson is terrific. Loved his whole catalog up through Pattern Recognition. He is another author who plays with language in a way that is novel and brilliant but still fun to read. Spook Country was a little slow for me for whatever reason, and I still need to read the most recent 2. Throwing those on the wish list now!
With regard to the list mentioned, I mostly agree with you but you've left out Wolfe for the Book of the New Sun/Book of the Long Sun. Those two cycle end to end officially catapulted Wolfe to the top of the list of my favorite living American authors.
There is one glaring oddity on there: Rothfuss has one epic work with Name of the Wind, but the Wise Man's Fear is overrated. His prose is still quite good in the second book, but the narrative falls apart and the characterizations get wonky as hell. Not to mention there are parts of the book that sound like they were written as fan service for internet virgin neckbeards. His novellas are interesting, but I'd really like to see him deliver the end of the kingkiller cycle as strongly as he began.
Thanks for the recommendation! I actually haven't read or heard about Gene Wolfe before (as far as I can recall), but I will certainly remedy that. Looking forward to picking these up soon.
