The Big U

by Neal Stephenson

308 pages

English language

Published Nov. 22, 2001 by Perennial.

ISBN:: 978-0-380-81603-3

(22 reviews)

The New York Times Book Review called Neal Stephenson's most recent novel "electrifying" and "hilarious"...but if you want to know Stephenson was doing twenty years before he wrote the epic Cryptonomicon, it's back-to-school time. Back to The Big U, that is, a hilarious send-up of American college life starring after years our of print, The Big U is required reading for anyone interested in the early work of this singular writer.

3 editions

lijadora reviewed The Big U by Neal Stephenson

Review of 'The Big U' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Neal Stephenson held of the publication of this book for a long time as it wasn't up to his standards (something like "there's a lit of other books that deserve the attention"). He was right.

Strictly completionists only material.

Still kept my attention - and the story is sort of unique (a university complex spinning completely out of control including giant mutant rats, a radio active dump, communist infiltrant and lots of deadly violence).

outofrange reviewed The Big U by Neal Stephenson

Review of 'The Big U' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

A bit less polished than other Stephenson works I've hit so far, but still right down my alley. When I was an electrical engineering student at the University of Wyoming I fantasized about building a rail gun that would launch skydivers from a lazyboy. It's probably good I didn't get my hands on this book then...

settingshadow reviewed The Big U by Neal Stephenson

Review of 'The Big U' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

In the future, when an author thinks that his book isn't worth reading, I'm going to take his word for it. The Big U is too over the top to be an enjoyable, subtle satire of the large university life, although it had that potential in the beginning. On the other hand, the melodrama and large scale events are too trivial for the novel to be epic. The overall effect is pretty "meh."
The detail and fact finding that Stephenson is known for is all but absent in this book. The only signature Stephenson move that the Big U contains is the litany of story lines and multiple character narratives, but with uncharacteristic brevity and lack of details, the constant storyline switching is irritating and makes the novel shallower rather than deeper.
Also, Stephenson should know that his fans are the physics majors, hackers and LARPers of the universe and …