Neal Stephenson Visits Writers in the Loft with Latest Novel FALL
By: Sarah Hookey May. 15, 2019
On Friday, June 14, #1 New York Times bestselling author Neal Stephenson visits with his new novel FALL, a wildly inventive and entertaining science fiction thriller-Paradise Lost by way of Philip K. Dick-that unfolds in the near future, in parallel worlds.
The 7pm event includes an author presentation and Q+A, plus a book signing and meet-and-greet. It will be held at The Music Hall Loft at 131 Congress Street, in downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
"We're excited for what's sure to be a mind-bending evening with Neal," said Monte Bohanan, Director of Marketing & Communications at The Music Hall and the night's moderator. "I can't wait for our conversation about consciousness, technology, humanity-and this thrilling story."
A synopsis for the novel is as follows: In his youth, Richard "Dodge" Forthrast founded Corporation 9592, a gaming company that made him a multi-billionaire. In his middle years, when Dodge undergoes a routine medical procedure, something goes irrevocably wrong. He is pronounced brain dead and put on life support. Years before, when a much younger Dodge drew up his will, he directed that his body be given to a cryonics company, so Dodge's family has his brain scanned and its data structures uploaded and stored in the cloud, until it could eventually be revived.
When future technology allows Dodge's brain to be turned back on, it is an achievement that is nothing less than the disruption of death itself. An eternal afterlife-the Bitworld-is created, in which humans continue to exist as digital souls.
But this brave new immortal world is not the Utopia it might first seem...
FALL; or, Dodge in Hell is pure, unadulterated fun: a grand drama of analog and digital, man and machine, angels and demons, gods and followers, the finite and the eternal. In this exhilarating epic, Neal Stephenson raises profound existential questions and touches on the revolutionary breakthroughs that are transforming our future. Combining the technological, philosophical, and spiritual in one grand myth, he delivers a mind-blowing speculative literary saga for the modern age.
Neal Stephenson is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the novels Seveneves, Reamde, Anathem, The System of the World, The Confusion, Quicksilver, Cryptonomicon, The Diamond Age, Snow Crash, and Zodiac, and the groundbreaking nonfiction work In the Beginning...Was the Command Line. Neal holds a B.A. in Geography and a minor in physics from Boston University.
The ticket package for Writers in the Loft: Neal Stephenson with FALL on Friday, June 14, at 7pm is $49. In addition to a reserved seat, the package includes a copy of FALL; or, Dodge in Hell ($35, hardcover), a bar beverage, author Q+A, and book signing meet-and-greet. Packages can be purchased online at TheMusicHall.org, over the phone at 603.436.2400, or in person at the B2W Box Office at the Historic Theater, 28 Chestnut Street.
Photo Credit: Brady Hall
Comments
Videos