Neal Stephenson confirmed his status as one of science fiction's leading authors, in the wake of the acclaimed Anathem, by selling his next book in what Publisher's Marketplace calls a "major deal." (In other words, it was worth at least $500,000.) But the book, called REAMDE, is classified as "thriller" rather than "science fiction." Does that mean Stephenson is abandoning the genre? More likely, he's doing a near-future novel, and handling the thriller genre much the same way he did in 1994's Interface, co-written with his uncle J. Frederick George. As for the title — is it just "README" misspelled, or does it have some deeper significance? [Publisher's Marketplace, thanks Clinton!]