Rating: 
Summary: Loved it
Review: I almost didn't buy the book because of the (few) negative reviews. Not having read any Stephenson before, I plan on ordering them all. This book was a great read. I marked many passages and read them aloud to friends. Forget the comments regarding the cryptography being too difficult, or that only CompSci majors will enjoy the book. The comedy was great, and the writing was precise and moved along at a good clip throughout the entire book. If you enjoy good fiction - albeit highbrow vs. slapstick - you won't go wrong.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing research and writing
Review: An incredible read. Stephenson's knowledge of events of World War II, the development of military codes, the birth of the computer, etc., is truly mind-boggling. Despite its heft, at 900 pages +, I never once felt my attention slipping, which is quite a tribute to Stephenson's writing skills. Great characterization, several gripping stories (present day and past history), as well as fascinating facts make for time well spent. If this truly is a first volume, I anxiously await volumes 2 - ?
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty impressive!
Review: I am not a computer scientist, but I was persuaded to read this book by one, and boy, am I glad I did. I was amazed by the level of knowledge in this book (from the details of Bach to those of code), but it was the storyline that kept me engaged -- I finished it in about four days. It'd be perfect if things didn't wrap up quite so Hollywood-like at the end.
Rating: 
Summary: Did we read the same book?
Review: Despite all the accolades here at Amazon, this book leaves several things to be desired. One is a coherent narrative. (It's not a matter of being lost in the fun little forays he takes into crypto as I too am a Computer Scientist...I know the technology he's talking about.) While it's true that he throws three balls in the air at once (WWII Germans, WWII US Marine, Contemporary Data Haven Dudes, plus a few minor strands) he drops them all. Nothing ever comes of the great Conspiracies he sets up. Everything sort of fizzles and just ends at the ending. No connections are made (in any significant way, other than chance, unexplained meetings or enterly superfical segues) between the various groups, nothing ties together the threads. The closest similar writer I can think of is Thomas Pynchon in terms of conspiracies and seemingly anomalous events actually being deeply interwoven. Except in Pynchon they actually interweave and suck you into the intense level of paranoid required to belive in things like a grand mail cabal (viz., Crying of Lot 49). Here, events kind of bump into each other and fall down, berift of the nuance required for such schemes to work. Perhaps the worse, if superficial, example of this is when he kills off one character half way through the book, only to have him appear, unexplained, again towards the end. (A character whose biblical- and UNIX- significant name, becomes yet another promising premise that retreats into banality.) There are lots of other examples where Stephenson can't hold up the foundation he lays out, (such as fantastically designed warehouses, elaborate crypto- and naming games and odd chance encounters of characters, none of which amount to anything) but describing such might ruin the book for other readers, so.... Finally, what is his problem with women in this book? While he spends plenty of time trashing academia's sillinesses (for no apparent reason), his absolute lack of insight into his few female characters (minor characters at that) resembles nothing so much as the perspective of a teenage gamer whose closest interaction with women comes from adult web sites. The flat treatments are boring and insulting. (And I am hardly what you would call a 'feminist'.) All in all a disappointing book from the author of the much better 'Snowcrash'. It really seems like this is a rough draft, pushed out in a hurry to satisfy an editorial deadline.
Rating:
Summary: much weaker than Stephenson's other work
Review: I consider Snow Crash the best cyberpunk novel ever. Diamond Age was a bit weaker but still good. After reading the others I ran out to buy this book. Cryptonomicon is much weaker than these earlier works. The pace is slow and Snow Crash has more creative ideas on one page than this whole book on 400+ pages. I ended up selling it which I almost never do. I disagree with some of the other reviewers. I'm a computer guy too (working in the networking area) but this book doesn't have much to offer to hackers or "computer scientists".
Rating:
Summary: Captain Crunch
Review: The book is worth the effort. There are lots of digressions of varying degrees of importance. A classic description of the science of eating Capt. Crunch.
Rating: 
Summary: 400 Pages too long
Review: Compared to his other books Cryptonomicon is a waste of time. Unless you are a die hard Stephenson fan who must read everything he writes then don't bother. If you must read it then don't feel guilty over occaisonally skipping 20-30 pages at a time, you won't miss much.
Rating:
Summary: Too real to be science fiction
Review: This is the most intelligent book I've read in years, clearly ahead of the curve in predicting near term events, as well as human interactions and emotional complexities. Exciting, entertaining and brain expanding.
Rating:
Summary: Really Good
Review: I found this to be book to be an exciting and sometimes hysterical read. The only problem was that in some places it slowed to a crawl. Cryptonomicon traces families and how they and their decescendents are linked through common bonds. Namely, crptology. One half of the book takes place during WWII, showcasing aspects of the war that I never really thought much about. One of the major character (Lawrence Waterhouse) is in the Navy, working out how to keep the Germans from figuring out that we've broken their codes. His plots are then carried out by Bobby Shaftoe, a marine raider who writes haikus. In the present, the descendents of these characters work at creating a new high-tech company, and are led through a complex maze leading to Nazi gold and secret plots. A great read, if you have the time.
Rating:
Summary: An amazing book!
Review: This is an extraordinary book. 100 pages in, I found myself regretting it is *only* 900 pages long. It's filled to the brim with puzzles, insights, mathematical formulas, etc. The characters are vividly realized. There are some incredibly funny situations and events, and Stephenson manages to tell two separate stories in two separate times (WWII and Now) which intertwine and bounce off of each-other without being too confusing or difficult. If you work with computers or the Internet, this book points you to THE NEXT BIG THING. Warning: the content could be confusing at times for those unfamiliar with computers or the internet, though even taken as an adventure story, it's great good fun.
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