Atmosphæra Incognita

by Neal Stephenson
97 pgs

I haven't read much by Neal Stephenson, but what I have, I've really enjoyed, enough so that I have several more of his books sitting on the bookshelf right now, yet to be read. The reason they're still to-be-read, is because I feel like I need to prepare myself sufficiently before I start each of his books. For one, they're usually door stoppers, at around 1,000 pages each. But they're also dense and cerebral books, full of big ideas that I worry could potentially cause a brain aneurysm in a a person like me, if I'm not prepared beforehand.

So, I was interested to see what Stephenson could accomplish with a story less than 100 pages long. Atmosphæra Incognita is about the building of a 20-kilometer-high tower in the Nevada desert. The purpose of the tower is given, but it's not an important part of the story, nor are the limited characters it contains. What Stephenson instead focuses on in the few pages he uses is the architectural innovation needed to realistically build a structure that reaches into space.

Atmosphæra Incognita is an interesting read, but not the one I'd recommend for an introduction to his work. For that, do some mental stretches and calisthenics and then pick up one of his fictional tomes.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆