I did better than list the author's name, I gave the link to the book on Amazon so he could see the author, the reviews, and order it.

As for my comparison to Dune:

Dune is one of the more amazing efforts in "world building" on par with Lord of the Rings. Like these two works, Anathem builds a unique vocabulary, though Stephenson does it much more seamlessly than Herbert. Like Dune, Anathem builds not only a world, but synthesizes realistic cultures from extrapolation (in the case of Dune), and abstraction in the case of Anathem.

It is true that the narrative structures of Dune and Anathem are completely different. As are their messages as they speak to the reader. Dune's Big Idea brings together late 50's and early 60's drug culture, then new ideas on genetics, Herbert's own studies in environmental conservancy, and his studies of Zen mysticism and Arabic cultures. Herbert's underlying themes of religion-as-political-tool, tyranny, and freedom also shine through.

As you mention, Stephenson breathes life into Platonic Idealism through the lens of modern physics and mathematics. As you read, you gain an education, in much the same way you do regrading desert ecology from reading Dune. These are the literary similarities I was referring to in spite of the fact that the two works are vastly different.

As someone who has never read the Ringworld series. How is Niven's pros? Is it quite an easy read or is one a slog through the pages with a lot of heavy ideas to digest?

I'm looking for some more bedtime reading now I've driven through my current pile of Christmas books.

He's not exactly the 'deepest' writer out there, lets just say that much.

"Ringworld" in fantastic, "Ringworld Engineers" is OK (helps to read his novel "Protector" first), "Ringworld Throne" is God-awful (Vampires.....seriously ?), "Children of Ringworld" is back to awesome.

Are they actually in sequence? Or if i skip the books you said to avoid I wont be missing out on essential plot and so on?

I love "Ringworld", and I have a story about a very drunk Niven at WorldCon 1988 in New Orleans.

I'll get the first book and give it a whirl on my tablet then.

Always willing to try something new.

Haha it is very possible you and I were in the same room together

So I got ringworld last night. It's not a bad book. About 100 pages in. I must say though that it reeks of 1970s SF. This isnt a bad thing, just my god. I'd forgotten what old SF was like.

Still a good read though.

The Dresden Files - Harry Dresden, Wizard, the only one in the phone book. Hard-boiled noir detective meets Lord of the Rings. The only problem with these books is that you'll read each one in a single sitting (neglecting food, sleep and work) and be sad that book 14 isn't out yet.

There's so much more, but let's start there.

Care to elaborate on that statement? ... please?

Hard to explain really. Just the style of everything. It has a lot of that early 70s riff... maybe its just me I dont know.

For example, The Hitchhikers Guide To the Galaxy is probably the most 1980s series ever written in terms of SF. It reeks of Glam and so on.

It's really not a complaint. Just writing has changed since then. It's like saying "My God Dickens is such a 19th century writer!", same thing. The book is just more akin to what I used to read when I was young, than to what I have been reading as of late.

I had an "aha" moment just recently when I read Joe Haldeman's Forever War for the first time.
Back than, writers introduced characters, made them go places, do stuff and suffer the consequences.

Neal Stephenson Reamde - Chinese hacker gold farmers in a WOW-like MMO, plus Russian mafia, plus some terrorists, plus the usual likable Stephenson characters. And the usual laughs along the way.

Oh so much this. Dresden series is wonderful!

Would also recommend
Titan, Wizard and Demon (3 books) by John Varley.

So I got ringworld last night. It's not a bad book. About 100 pages in. I must say though that it reeks of 1970s SF. This isnt a bad thing, just my god. I'd forgotten what old SF was like.

Still a good read though.

Great read except did the final "chase scene" really have to go on for 180 pages ?? That was almost a joke unto itself, and by the King of Long-Windedness Himself at that.

I had an "aha" moment just recently when I read Joe Haldeman's Forever Warfor the first time.

Now there is another great one.

I actually met Joe twice, once in Houston in 1980, then at that Worldcon in 1988. But on both occasions it was actually him and his father Jack, and they both signed each copy I had of their books !

LOL, true. The pacing could have used a little turbocharging there. I actually liked Necronomicon better, but Reamde has an MMO theme, so it had to be mentioned on EO forums.

I hear Satan is an awesome author, but where did you get a copy... Oh wait, did you mean Cryptonomicon? Yes, that was a good book, more historical fiction than science fiction though.

His Baroque Cycle of 3 novels is great historical fiction that reads like science fiction. More books of ideas than actual story.

I skipped the Baroque Cycle and seemed to have read the best ones:
- Snow Crash: With a main character named Hiro Protagonist, how can you go wrong?
- Diamond Age: Nanotech meets neo-Victorian society... awesome (complete with techno-hippies naturally)
- Cryptonomicon: World War II, cryptography, the Phillipines, and little Douglas MacArthur Shaftoe... but no science fiction.
- Anathem: See previous recommendation and analysis. Probably Stephenson's greatest achievement to date.

I've also read the stuff he's written as Stephen Bury but none of it is as memorable.