Fall
Fall by Neal Stephensonby Neal Stephenson
Hacker ApprovedRanked 21 of 179 science fiction novels by recommenders
Stephenson's ambitious, big-idea novel about uploaded minds and the singularity; people praise its ideas and readable prose. Critics find its subplots uneven and disconnected.
Stephenson's ambitious, big-idea novel about uploaded minds and the singularity; people praise its ideas and readable prose. Critics find its subplots uneven and disconnected.
27 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 22
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 81%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 22 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Big, ambitious ideas about uploaded minds
“a ridiculously long novel about a future where the cloud is increasingly used for uploading souls of scanned brains”
Comment from 21 Mar 2026 in “Major leap towards reanimation after death as mammal's brain preserved” “The book in particular is of a debatable quality but I keep going back to those introductory chapters as prophetic”
Comment from 27 May 2026 in “I'm Tired of Talking to AI” “much more oddly ambitious. But it is a very strange work. You have to be on board for the literary direction.”
Comment from 28 Sep 2026 in “Neal Stephenson responds with wit and humor (2004)” - Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Meta workers can opt out of being tracked at work up to 30 min”
- Comment from 26 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?”
Simple, precise, readable prose
“His writing is simple and precise, but his ideas are big.”
Comment from 26 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?” “Reamde and Fall are quite readable”
Comment from 28 Nov 2025 in “A Remarkable Assertion from A16Z” Enjoyable, rewarding read overall
“A fun read; there is a generalization of this idea therein.”
Comment from 12 Mar 2026 in “Ask HN: Please restrict new accounts from posting” “I really liked the first half to 3/4ths of the that book.”
Comment from 7 Dec 2025 in “Trains cancelled over fake bridge collapse image” “My favorite NS in a long time.”
Comment from 12 Feb 2026 in “My wife calls me, panicked”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Subplots disconnected or go nowhere
“That whole book seemed like a collection of interesting threads that ultimately go nowhere.”
Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “Large-Scale Online Deanonymization with LLM Agents” “after a couple hundred pages I ended up just skipping the chapters about Bitworld”
Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “Meta workers can opt out of being tracked at work up to 30 min” “pretty much entirely disconnected from the rest of the story”
Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “Meta workers can opt out of being tracked at work up to 30 min”
Other science fiction novels people recommend
The four most recommended other science fiction novels, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Project Hail Maryby Andy Weir | 117 | 24 | 83% | 12 | — | Approved |
| There Is No Antimemetics Divisionby qntm | 98 | 34 | 74% | 9 | 1.5 yrs6 owners | Approved |
| Blindsightby Peter Watts | 96 | 27 | 78% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Duneby Frank Herbert | 82 | 25 | 77% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Fallby Neal StephensonThis page | 22 | 5 | 81% | 8 | — | Approved |
What people said
23 of the 27 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“"Fall" is the exception that proves the rule/trend”
“Big fan of Camus; I found The Fall and The Plague to both be stronger books than The Stranger”
“much more oddly ambitious. But it is a very strange work. You have to be on board for the literary direction.”
“Fall; or, Dodge in Hell and The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. were pretty good too”
“Its an amazing idea about realistically what building the singularity could look like.”
“after a couple hundred pages I ended up just skipping the chapters about Bitworld”
“pretty much entirely disconnected from the rest of the story”
“The book in particular is of a debatable quality but I keep going back to those introductory chapters as prophetic”
“This is a great example for a discussion about The Hard Problem.”
“a ridiculously long novel about a future where the cloud is increasingly used for uploading souls of scanned brains”
“A fun read; there is a generalization of this idea therein.”
“A good biography of Maxwell”
“That whole book seemed like a collection of interesting threads that ultimately go nowhere.”
“cleverly explored in the book albeit for too short of a time”
“The Fall is a great movie but still more style than substance imo.”
“I was only aware of The Fall for its brilliant photography.”
“I treasure The Fall and every frame of it”
“It's my favorite film, incredibly ambitious and funny and yet virtually unknown to the public.”
“one of my favorite movies ever”
“My favorite NS in a long time.”
“His writing is simple and precise, but his ideas are big.”
“I really liked the first half to 3/4ths of the that book.”
“Reamde and Fall are quite readable”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.