Still trying to learn from Stephenson.

Not having read a book in over a month while I was busy writing, I dove into Reamde.

Looked up at 2:00 a.m. and realized I should be going to bed.

Some authors just have a very pleasant and fun voice.  Stephen King, Neal Stephenson, for instance.  Maybe that's just another way of saying they're good writers, I don't know.

So as I was saying yesterday, not much happens for the first 80 pages or so, until the chapter entitled Day 1.  But none of it boring, all of it character development that makes the action scenes pay off because you know and like the characters so much.


SPOILERS!


So I broke off last night about 200 pages in -- the heroine has tricked the bad guys into invading the wrong apartment, and by coincidence it's full of terrorists armed with assault rifles and there is a gun battle, while the three hostages are in the stairwell trying to escape and the quirky Chinese woman is trying to get free and start the car and...

I went to bed.

So, we have a action scene that is better done than most thrillers, you have characters that are better done than most drama's, you have quirky and fun and unexpected surprises better done than most hip novels and so on.


END SPOILERS!


About the only thing I've learned, I think, is that I could probably take more time to tell the story.  The scene above, wrapped up in a certain way, would be a more than satisfying book to me -- about 250 pages.  Perfectly good book.

He's got another 750 pages to go...