Monday, October 21, 2024, 7:00 PM, Polostan: An Evening with Neal Stephenson, The Book Stall, 811 Elm St., Winnetka, IL 60093.

BONUS BOOK GIVEAWAY of Polostan at the event. SPACE IS LIMITED — REGISTRATION REQUIRED: https://bit.ly/StephensonFANEvent

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of thirteen previous critically acclaimed works of fiction, including Termination Shock and Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson delivers the first part of an epic new historical trilogy that illuminates the origins of the Atomic Age with Polostan: Volume One of Bomb Light. Centered around an extraordinarily intrepid, resourceful, and lively protagonist with roots in both America and Russia, the novel spans two continents and many of the seminal events of the early twentieth century as Stephenson weaves a spellbinding tale of social and economic upheaval, revolution, espionage, invention, sport, and romance.

As The Atlantic has recently observed, “Perhaps no writer has been more clairvoyant about our current technological age than Neal Stephenson. His novels coined the term metaverse, laid the conceptual groundwork for cryptocurrency, and imagined a geoengineered planet. And nearly three decades before the release of ChatGPT, he presaged the current AI revolution.”

Stephenson is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the novels Termination Shock, Fall; or, Dodge in Hell, 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. He is also the coauthor, with Nicole Galland, of The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. His works of speculative fiction have been variously categorized as science fiction, historical fiction, maximalism, cyberpunk, and postcyberpunk. In his fiction, he explores fields such as mathematics, cryptography, philosophy, currency, and the history of science.

Born in Fort Meade, Maryland (home of the NSA and the National Cryptologic Museum), Stephenson comes from a family comprising engineers and hard scientists he dubs “propeller heads.” He holds a degree in geography and physics from Boston University, where he spent a great deal of time on the university mainframe.

This event is suitable for youth 12+. It will be recorded but not live streamed and will be available on FAN’s website and YouTube channel.