The Recurring Cast
Character guide · 11 books · 1992 to 2021

Neal Stephenson

Thriller and suspenseScience fictionHistorical fictionLiterary and generalTechno and militaryCyberpunkComic science fictionWartime and twentieth centuryLiterary fiction

Neal Stephenson writes big novels full of ideas: Snow Crash, a satirical cyberpunk adventure; Cryptonomicon, about codebreakers in the Second World War and their grandchildren; and the Baroque Cycle, about the birth of modern science and money.

Best estimate, compiled from series guides, publisher descriptions and reviews where available, and from memory otherwise. Book level only, not chapter level. Minor includes cameos and brief references. Each book carries a confidence rating in its tooltip. The Waterhouse and Shaftoe families, and the strange Enoch Root, link Cryptonomicon and the Baroque Cycle.

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Who appears in which book

Click a name to follow that character from book to book, or a book title to see its cast.

LLeadMMajor·MinorHas a note
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Neal Stephenson books in order

Each series in publication order, with its lead characters. Where the story runs in a different order, switch to Story order. Crossover books are marked and listed under their main series. Use My books to track what you have read.

Standalone

5 booksCyberpunkComic science fiction
  1. 1Snow Crash1992With Hiro Protagonist · Set in Los AngelesBuy on Amazon
  2. 2The Diamond Age1995With Nell · Set in ShanghaiBuy on Amazon
  3. 3Anathem2008With Fraa Erasmas · Set in ArbreBuy on Amazon
  4. 4Seveneves2015Set in spaceBuy on Amazon
  5. 5Termination Shock2021Set in HoustonBuy on Amazon

Cryptonomicon and Baroque Cycle

4 books · Set in various placesLiterary fictionWartime and twentieth century
  1. 1Cryptonomicon1999With Lawrence Waterhouse and Randy WaterhouseBuy on Amazon
  2. 2Quicksilver2003With Daniel Waterhouse and Jack ShaftoeBuy on Amazon
  3. 3The Confusion2004With Jack Shaftoe and ElizaBuy on Amazon
  4. 4The System of the World2004With Daniel WaterhouseBuy on Amazon

Dodge Forthrast

2 books · Set in various placesTechno and militaryCyberpunk
  1. 1Reamde2011With Richard "Dodge" Forthrast and Zula ForthrastBuy on Amazon
  2. 2Fall; or, Dodge in Hell2019With Richard "Dodge" ForthrastBuy on Amazon

Characters

13 recurring and key characters, with the book each one first appears in.

Standalone leads

Waterhouses and Shaftoes

The Forthrasts