{"id":51976,"date":"2025-03-26T16:48:41","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T23:48:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/?p=51976"},"modified":"2025-08-24T13:24:59","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T20:24:59","slug":"polostan-by-neal-stephenson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2025\/03\/26\/polostan-by-neal-stephenson\/","title":{"rendered":"Polostan by Neal Stephenson"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:622,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/app.thestorygraph.com\\\/books\\\/45d9e761-bff6-4309-8a9c-a75cfe2ff609&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>Book 18 of 2025: <a href=\"https:\/\/app.thestorygraph.com\/books\/45d9e761-bff6-4309-8a9c-a75cfe2ff609\"><em>Polostan<\/em><\/a> by Neal Stephenson: &#x2b50;&#xfe0f;&#x2b50;&#xfe0f;&#x2b50;&#xfe0f;&#x2b50;&#xfe0f;<\/p>\n<p>On the one hand, it\u2019s basically all setup \u2014 it very much feels like Stephenson wrote another 1,000-plus page opus and the publisher cut it down into more manageable pieces. On the other, if you\u2019re the type who enjoys Stephenson\u2019s 1,000-page plus opuses, it\u2019s captivating and engrossing setup, as he sets the stage with events in 1930s America and the Soviet Union, with his usual digressions and fixations on whatever minutiae have captured his fancy. Hopefully it won\u2019t be too long between volumes, as it\u2019s a minor pity that I can\u2019t just read the full story in one go.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_3982-1024x768.jpeg\" alt=\"Me holding Polostan\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-51977\" srcset=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_3982-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_3982-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_3982-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_3982-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_3982-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><br \/>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#x1f4da; 18\/2025: Basically all setup, but it\u2019s Stephenson\u2019s usual captivating and engrossing setup with his usual digressions and fascinations. &#x2b50;&#xfe0f;&#x2b50;&#xfe0f;&#x2b50;&#xfe0f;&#x2b50;&#xfe0f;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2036,2049],"tags":[6858,4095],"class_list":["post-51976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-photos","tag-bomb-light","tag-neal-stephenson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51976"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52349,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51976\/revisions\/52349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}