Rating: 
Summary: Almost a 'Great Novel'
Review: I have a confession to make. I never liked Snow Crash. I thought it was poorly written at times and the author too obsessed with his own cleverness.But people grow and change especially, one hopes, writers. The Diamond Age was wildly inventive and enjoyable but flawed. Crytonomicon is another massive step forward for Stephenson, but it still has its irritating aspects. A novel of this sort - multiple plot lines, multiple times and places, linking real and fictional characters through time and space - is very difficult to handle effectively, to organise so that it all hangs together. It is a real tribute to Stephenson's growing skill that Cryptonomicon does manage this task. His writing can be superb. He has mastered an ironic, faux-pulp style that mixed with the cryptography and various language-styles of the characters, makes for both entertaining and challenging reading. Some of Crytonomicon's characters are memorable and sensitively-handled, both those invented, like Randy, Lawrence Waterhouse and Bobby Shaftoe, and real, particularly his portrayal of Alan Turing, revealed properly as eccentric, brilliant and thoroughly queer. He also manages the very rare feat of using characters as representatives, as symbolic figures, and also as real and sympathetic people. However... Stephenson seems to be willfuly irritating in some regards. He sometimes appears to find it hard to differentiate between an in-joke or very personal humour and things that a wider audience will find amusing, and can sometimes appear overly impressed with his own wit and wisdom. Sometimes he lays on the farcical and eccentric aspects of particular situations too thick: the overly bizarre Scottish island communities featured on which Lawrence and Unit 2702 are imposed, is a case in point. Stephenson is clearly not a very good editor of his own work - very few authors are - he badly needs a sympathetic editor. He also has a real problem writing believable female characters. This is a book about men and about very male communities (soldiers, scientists, computer hackers etc.) - but even when female characters do appear they do so as symbols or as one-dimensional people. Even Amy Shaftoe is there in the end purely so that the Geek can get the Girl. Overall, Crytonomicon is a valiant but failed attempt to write a truly great novel. Personally, I have no doubt that Stephenson can do it. He's getting closer with every book. But, he needs to get a bit of outside editing help, stop letting his own belief in his undoubted cleverness get in the way of his writing, and learn a bit more about women! You should certainly read it, but also expect better in the future from this talented author.
Rating: 
Summary: A dissenting opinion
Review: ...If a writer seems to feel he is smarter than his readers, then everything is lost. This book is well on its way to becoming as well-loved as Stephenson's earlier "Snow Crash," but while the praise for that book is merited (it's excellent, by the way, one of the ten best books I've ever read, and I'm not an SF fan), it's misplaced here. Often plodding, "Cryptonomicon" buries its best ideas under a meaningless tide of jargon and concepts that seem designed by the author merely to show off the fact that he did his research. Do we really need so many pages on the science of digging tunnels into mountains? Perhaps in a civil engineering textbook; certainly not here. That's what "Cryptonomicon" feels like far too often: a textbook, not a novel, and that's a shame--there are bursts of real genius here, particularly in some of the action sequences (the torpedo assault on a Japanese boat is as well written a scene as any I've read). "Cryptonomicon" merits three stars for its sheer ambition. But I dock it two stars for having an excessive ego. Interesting, but not up to the standard Stephenson reached with the superlative "Snow Crash."
Rating: 
Summary: Cyberpunk Comes of Age
Review: Not your average sci-fi cyber-punk fairy tale, Cryptonomicon really stands out as a gem of modern fiction. Part "Catch 22", part "Sneakers", this tale is told with the wit and style of a true classic. If Kurt Vonnegurt had written "Slaughter House 5" in the late 90's, this is the book it easily could have become.
Rating:
Summary: Very entertaining and well written historical fiction
Review: As a fan of Diamond Age and Snowcrash, I was at first upset that Cryptonomicon took more of a historical track. But, it did not take many pages before I was as thoroughly gripped by Stephenson's story as I had been before. Certainly a long book, but an excellent read. Encryption neophites will definitely learn something as well. I highly recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is bad! (Sorry, Neil)
Review: First, I must be honest. I only managed to complete 732 pages of the 900+ in this book. (I swear, each night more pages seemed to be added.) I am an avid reader, probably my biggest vice. I even made it all the way through "The Bell Curve." However, this is the first book that I have ever stopped reading because it was so badly written, so badly constructed, and had such weak character definition. I kept checking my wine glass for traces of a mind-altering drug, the book was so bad. Please, please don't buy this thing. It stunk, to use the vernacular.
Rating:
Summary: Stephenson at his best
Review: This book is a masterwork - this is Stephenson's best and strongest work yet. It is never tiring, the characters are all strong, and the book ends with you wanting more (which, supposedly, there is more on the way). I took my time with this book and just enjoyed each and every word, each image, each idea. Stephenson is clearly becoming one of the best writers today, and I think we'll be seeing him go for a long, long time...
Rating:
Summary: A Crypto Classic
Review: Blending near future fiction with historical novel, Cryptonomicon shows Stephenson has come far as a writer since Snow Crash. His straightforward mastery of the language, along with his irrepressible humor (think Vonnegut or Heller), made this book a joy to read. This book is not cyberpunk, but readers of his other works should enjoy it immensely. As long as the book is, it reads fast. And if you are a novice to cryptology, this book will teach you a lot as an added bonus, or at least give you tantalizing hints to follow up on with net searches and further reading. I also learned a great deal of historic fact about world war two from all the details Stephenson incorporated into the story. Computer and ham radio geeks of all ages will particularly enjoy this book due to the technology involved and several computer geek type characters and plotting in the near future fiction part. A few cruder passages generally relating to the inability of one of the characters to get enough...ahem...action left me nearly rolling on the floor. Although not really science fiction except in the loosest sense, Cryptonomicon is destined to be one of the best, in whatever genre it happens to fall. The book may be a little offensive to some people of Japanese extraction, since it deals pretty brutally with some of the unfortunate behavior of the japanese military in WW II.
Rating:
Summary: Worth your time
Review: This book is worth anyone's time, however, if I would do it again, I would not spend the time to read it. I will give it 3 our of 5 stars. Extremely interesting and educational, but too lengthy and boring at times. Stephenson did not put enough effort into keeping me interesting throughout the book. Cryptonomicon does not even come close to Snow Crash, which I read in less than a day. Again, if you have the time, read it.
Rating:
Summary: Complex, "really techie," savagely witty
Review: If you're interested in computing, cryptography, World War II, freedom of information, with a whiff of conspiracy theory, this is a superb vehicle to reading enjoyment. It is very slightly less "savagely" witty than some of Stephenson's earlier works [Interface and Cobweb leap to mind], but certainly carries on with the common features of: - Sympathy towards the "technically knowledgeable"; - At some point, dangerously byzantine political "stuff" happens;
- An largely American perspective on the world tempered with two indirections, on the one hand, recognizing that there are a truly unfortunate number of American bigots, and on the other protagonists that somewhat understand and are sympathetic to foreign cultures; - A fair bit of nearly "over the top" savage wit; - Protagonists that are not so sweetly nice that the reader is expected to blindly cheer for them. Sometimes we all act like jerks, and that is manifestly true of Stephenson's characters. Unlike Snow Crash and The Diamond Age, this story is not a "future culture;" it steps between World War II and a somewhat undefined "around now." Those that expect science fiction to indicate spaceships and Captain Kirk making out with alien women will certainly be disappointed. It's a world that is only a few "twists" different from our own, and the historical junctures aren't particularly obvious.
Rating:
Summary: Mind-boggling
Review: After I picked this book up, I did not put it down for 7 hours. I started at 8 at night, and stopped at 2 in the morning. Then I read the last little bit at 10 in the morning. This book IS that good. You will not want to put it down. The story has two major plot lines, one set in WW II, the other in 'A dark day after tomorrow' as the blub puts it. This is, by the way, a ridiculous description. There is nothing in Stephenson's undefinied 'present' that is darker that the reality of the late 90s. Maybe the publishers wanted it to sound spooky, I don't know. Anyway, a detailed description of the plot is largely unnecessary. The plot is not the point, and it is slightly incoherent in any case. What makes this book great is the way Stephenson writes. Now, this style is not for everyone. If you hate William Gibson or didn't like Catch-22, you probably won't like this book. Otherwise, its a joy. The difficult thing about it is that its all written in the present tense, giving it a stream-of consciousness feel. Once you get over the initial weirdness, though, you can see that it fits the atmosphere that Stephenson is trying to create. My personal favourite in this book are the bizzarre digression that Stephenson goes on. 2 pages on how to best eat captain crunch cereal. 5 pages, including graphs, calculating how long it will take for horniness to completely impair one's ability to think. Some of the more intensely mathematical of these digressions can be difficult for people with little talent for calculus (like me), but I still found them amusing. I have two and only two negatives to express. One, the 'villian', if that is what he is supposed to be, is ridiculous. Andrew Loeb's role is left undefined throughout the novel, and his appearance towards the end is bizzare and somewhat incomprehensible. The ending itself is the other problem. It seems like the publisher told Stephenson that he wasn't allowed to go over 1000 pages, so he just stopped writing then and their. Some of this may be explained by rumors of a sequel, but the ending still didn't quite fit. Many other people believe the book is also too long. I would deny this. The rambling, twisting nature of 'Cryptonomicon' is at the heart of its charm; to shorten it would be to lessen it. So just sit back, reserve several hours, and enjoy.
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