Cryptonomicon

Rating:
Summary: 900 Bloated pages
Review: The story is good but this guy Stephenson makes two or three sentences out of every one. The book is at best a 400 page novel. If he would get to point and stop sputtering bull!@#$ it would be much better. I am by the way an electrical engineer working in software and find it highly unlikely that any disciplined mind could put up with so much fluff instead of the story. Stephenson is highly overrated

Rating:
Summary: Ultimate Geek Book
Review: I admit it. I'm a geek. Always have been, always will be. I make most of my living convincing computers to transform radar signals into graphs and plots useful for aeronomers. This book was one of my favorite novels of all time.

I bought my brother-in-law (he used to paint his own D&D figures, that gives him a solid geek pedigree) a copy for his birthday. Three days later he called me to voice obscenities: "You @%$#! That's the best book I've ever read and I can't put it down ... but it's 900 PAGES!!!"

I enjoy Stephenson's style. He dances between story lines, weaving a tale of espionage, counter-espionage, information-age hi jinks, and a lost fortune. He paints pictures that a non-visual person (like myself) can =SEE=, but without breaking the action. Frequently the story suggests, then moves on, allowing the reader to fill in the obvious.

Four stars for an interesting plot. Five stars for inventing the proto-cyberpunk genre. Five stars for a graceful dance between story lines, images, and suggestion. Altogether a pleasant experience. Don't miss it if you're a geek. If you're not already a geek, it's worth becoming one just to appreciate this book!

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Rating:
Summary: An intelligent and enthralling work
Review: Stephenson manages to create a work in Cryptonomicon that is both informative and engrossing. With shades of earlier epics (I might point out the Illumintatus! trilogy), Stephenson creates a new-economy cyber-nerd thriller with its central focus not on the idea man for a startup, but instead on a somewhat hapless programmer who gets ripped forward into the real world from the security of his Starbucks lifestyle. At 900 pages, it's hard to not have some dead spots, but there were less than 10 pages in this book that I was uninterested in! If you are a fan of cryptology, computers, or telecommunications, this is a great book written just for you.

Rating:
Summary: Absorbing!
Review: Receiving this book as a birthday present I was, due to past experiences, somewhat wary. This book however, makes up for so many door jambs. Neal Stephenson is a story teller in the true sense. He has the ability to apparently veer off into a side show and then tie it essentially to the main thread, his characters are very real and different and importantly, believable. The book contains a number of fascinating insights into WWII, power, people, and of course, cryptography. Cryptonomicon is vast in both scope and detail but manages to remain a thrilling and intriguing read. I believe that this book is approachable by a vast number of people who would normally breeze past the `nerd' section - stretch yourself a little - try it.

Rating:
Summary: Cryptography over Three Generations
Review: This tome by my current favourite author is, can you guess?, amazing. The book runs like I think; a stream of consciousness (at times) adventure that covers three generations, and jumps back and forth between World War II and present day. The book's main topic: cryptography and the ethics of the whole arrangement appealed to me. As did the extensive use of crackers and computers. I greatly enjoyed this book. There was a great deal going on; and the author's use of language (especially for humour) is awesome. I think this is a fringe book; for those who like computers. Although there is enough war time action to tide another audience (military buffs) over between what might be perceived as dry bits.

Rating:
Summary: Intricate plot mixes history with fantasy
Review: For people who tend to be analytical, who like fast-paced intricate plots. For people who are interested (even mildly) in codes and ciphers. For people who like to speculate on the future of the internet and its role in international politics and economics. For people who are interested in the South Pacific battles in WWII.

For people who like books where things happen, where the story is the thing and the characters are doers, not navel-gazers, try this mammoth book. It will reward your attention with a robust, fascinating, well-told story about people you'll remember for a long time.

Rating:
Summary: mediocrity made pulp
Review: What a dull, tedious, artless black brick of a book. Stephenson is not a bad a writer, but he's not talented enough to write a good book that's this long. He's no story-teller: his characters are cartoonish and forgettable, and he has no knack for language. But at least the book is funny in spurts.

Rating:
Summary: Nerd heaven
Review: OK, the downside is it's definitely a book for geeky men (like me)and Stephenson's more interested in set pieces than an overall plot. But what set pieces - each of them told with enormous wit, excitement and vigour. Definitely worth the time it needs but, as someone else pointed out, it's not (and does not try to be) a modern classic in the Pyncheon mould. It's a witty and (for 900 pages) fast paced entertainment.

Rating:
Summary: Fun, but a bit long
Review: This is a good example of the around-the-world Ludlum/Clancey type thriller. It's set in both WWII and the present-day as we follow the fate of Japanese gold buried in the Philippines. We are treated to WWII commando raids, submarine rides, a long treatise on how to eat Capt. Crunch cereal, several long lessons on cryptology, and various fascinating ruminations on uber-geekdom.

The story line is solid and will keep you flipping the pages but it gets a bit slow for my taste toward the end. I would have preferred this 900 page book to have been about 200 pages lighter.

This would make a great "going on a trip" book. Not too dumb, but easy to read nonetheless.

Rating:
Summary: Great writing, mediocre novel -
Review: Neal Stephenson's a great writer, really top-flight. Unfortunately he's a pretty rotten novelist.

_Cryptonomicon_ is wildly funny, and filled to the brim with great language. There's plenty of plot. Too much plot. There's hordes of people running all over the world doing all kinds of stuff, quite a lot of which is done more because it's cool than because it's necessary or even useful to the story. The characters all sort of blend together as cool guys, each identified by a Quirk which they haul around with them.

There are numerous technical errors (minor plot details which either make no sense, or are ridiculous) which I would forgive in a less technical and detail oriented book.

I read the last 200 pages or so in a desperate sprint to reach the end before I stopped caring how it turned out. When I got there, it just sort of stopped -- right on top of one of this ridiculous technical errors. Perhaps it will make more sense if Volume Two comes out.

Lastly, the book is frankly misogynist. There are very few female characters, and they are drawn as ludicrous sketches. They're not even a walking Quirk, like the men, they are each a Walking Stereotype, usually of the worst sort (women are inscrutable manipulative and not very nice, but lordy we sure like to have sex with them -- ick!)

On the plus side, the language is great. There are several turns of phrase which will certainly enter MY daily usage. It's funny as all get out -- I *LOVED* the meta-business-plan. Well worth the read for language alone, just don't expect much of a novel to go with your language.