Cryptonomicon

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.

Rating:
Summary: interesting and entertaining, a winning combo
Review: Cryptonomicon appeals to the romantic and geek inside many of us, offering espionage, treasure hunting, heroism, technology, historical bits, and, for good measure, some d&d references. The multi-threaded storyline (I would count four protagonists) merges nicely - I didn't find the book to be overwhelmingly complicated, despite its heft. Along the way you take many side trips to interesting places, and learn some pretty cool things, too.

This book is also very funny, especially in describing the absurd activities (and the casual acceptance of them by the American hero, a perfect marine) undertaken as part of a complicated war-time mind game to mask knowledge of broken codes.

The characters are convincing are brought to life with subtle nuances in dialogue and "body language".

I agree with another reviewer in that the ending seems to sag a little, with the main character somewhat implausibly losing interest and several loose ends left untied...but I leave it with 5 stars because the rest of the novel is simply so engaging.

In summary, an extremely fun book combining a fascinating period in world history with some very interesting modern issues and trends. Well worth the long read...

Rating:
Summary: Gripping intertwined plots
Review: Just enough non-technical background on cryptography to keep your intellect stimulated, as the intertwined plots of code breaking exploits from contemporary techno-business and Second World War gold-running keep your attention on the edge of its seat. A long satisfying read.

Rating:
Summary: Mathematics never looked so exciting
Review: CRYPTONOMICON, written by Neal Stephenson, is a big book. Big. BIG. Bordering on HUGE. It has innumerable characters, enough plot to fill several books, and a theme that is presented in such exhaustive detail at some points that the reader has to lie down for awhile to absorb it all. It is a BIG book.

Thank God it's also funny.

Besides being an in-depth look at the world of hackers, cryptography, modern-day treasure hunters, World War II, tunnel digging, espionage, and more; Besides ALL that, CRYPTONOMICON may very well be the funniest book I've read since THE HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY.

Basically, Stepehenson follows two plot lines. In the first, he follows Lawrence Waterhouse, mathematician extrordinaire, as he becomes a foremost expert on the subject of code-making and code-breaking. Considering the usefullness of this gift, he is a) recruited as a code-breaker for the United States during World War II, b) sent to far off countires with names spelled without the use of vowels, and c) becomes a pioneer in the creation of the digital computer.

In the second plot line, Stephenson follows Randy Waterhouse, Lawrence's grandson, who is involved in setting up a 'data haven', whereby sensitive material from any source can be safely stored, for a price. But he soon becomes embroiled in a) the legal machinations of a billionaire known only as the Dentist, b) a scheme to create his own electronic currency, and c) a mad rush to dig up a Nipponese gold stash that has remained hidden since World War II.

Whew.

Obviously, CRYPTONOMICON is not to everyone's taste. It demands a great deal of patience, as Stephenson spends a large amount of time explaining the background and inner workings of computers, and code-breaking. However, Stephenson manages the near impossible; he creates excitement out of the most tedious technical explanations. I have read entire novels not half as interesting or suspenseful as Stephenson's desciption of the mathematics of a particular form of cryptography.

But Stephenson is not merely content to explain codes, he explains EVERYTHING: the ideal method of consuming Cap'n Crunch cereal; how to equally divide up an inheritance; how nitrogen bubbles are created in the bloodstream; and so on. Half the pleasure in Stephenson's work (and it IS a pleasure) is wondering where the next digression is going to come from, or from what new angle he'll approach a scenario. Stephenson is not a man lacking for ideas. In lesser hands, this could all seem quite precious and smug, but Stephenson never condescends. And if you don't understand the concepts, it doesn't matter, the novel still works without one-hundred-percent comprehension.

Ideas aside, CRYPTONOMICON is still a splendid read. With literally hundreds of characters, Stephenson manages to keep each one of them distinct, and his interwoven time lines are remarkable in their clarity. The ending seems a letdown, but how could it not be? After 900 pages, anything less than nuclear annihilation would be somewhat disappointing.

And, as I mentioned, it is often VERY funny. Laugh-out-loud funny, which I find very rare in a novel. And even if I absolutely hated CRYPTONOMICON (which I assuredly do not), I would still love his ten page digression into Lawrence Waterhouse's love life, as Lawrence tries to define his increasing loneliness and lust as a mathematical construct, including charts and graphs and equations. After that, I'd follow him anywhere.

Rating:
Summary: Obviously a kind of watershed..
Review: ..for readers bedazzled or completely dazed, depending - as it generates such a fun and varied response in the way of comments here. This is clearly a challenge of a book in this genre (or something new?) and a case of either you get it - or you don't. It's a twisted rope kind of story, made from many strands that offer different, but equally spellbinding perspectives. It frequently and brilliantly digresses into such arcane matters as "how best to eat your breakfast cereal" or "a short answer to why the Germans lost the war". This is not only brain food with occasional hopping mad and deeply satisfying bits stuck in it like surprise pralines, but most of all a really exciting story about the very near future and not-so-distant-past. Oh yes, more please... Sigh.

Rating:
Summary: Epic War,Secrets,Treasure Novel
Review: If you're looking for a real adventure that keeps you thinking and entertained at the same time then I would strongly suggest Cryptonomicon. It's helluva long and took me a while to read it but this seemed to make me feel more aquainted to the story and its characters. Simultaneously basing the story during WW11 and the present day gives the reader a real sense of the history and importance of secrecy and Stephenson does a wonderful job weaving the plots and subplots together without losing the readers attention. This has a lot to do with his hillarious wit and techno-casual style, which I must say is preaching to the choir to readers like me(what really had me in fits was a little passage concerning the mathematical relationship between concentration and ... I cant say:)). Nerds will love this, but I have no doubt that Stephenson's scope of apprecition extends further. I do not read a great deal of non-fiction so I cannot really suggest this to readers who enjoyed specific books but anyone who is not intimidated by 900 pages should enjoy it a great deal;its fun, exciting and gripping. I would highly recommend to readers who would like to read further about many of themes in the book such as The Enigma and Turing; and Modern Cryptology , to read The Code Book by Simon Singh.

Rating:
Summary: LONG
Review: This book was enormously long, and indeed has no plot, albeit the characters are not bad. Naive. The writer uses way too many similes and metaphors, to the point that some passages are hardly readable. The opposite of Hemingway. Given what takes place in the book, it could have been presented in half the volume, if not less, and it would have saved some trees from extinction. Otherwise, interesting ideas, especially if you do not know much about cryptography.

Rating:
Summary: Challenging and satisfying, worth reading and re-reading....
Review: I unhesitatingly award this fabulous book 5 stars. The compelling story of game theory in WWII intertwined with the acitivies of modern day cryptologists is fascinating and has you turning the pages. Cryptonomicon, however, is much more than this. It stretches your mind, challenges your ideas, provokes your imagination and above all demonstrates the power of information.

The book can be read from several angles; on the personal level of the story of the Waterhouses and Shaftoes; as a book about the devastating atrocitites of the second world war, which gets across the horror of the war in the East; a demonstration of the calculating mentality of the power brokers responsible for the flow of gold and information aound the world and the unscrupulous uses which these can be put to; as a remarkable history of cryptology; I could go on!

The strands of this complicated web weave into one of the best books I have ever read. Anyone who enjoys this book is among the most discerning, tasteful and intelligent people on the planet. Anyone who doesn't like it - try harder. It's worth it.

Rating:
Summary: don't miss
Review: I've only read a handful of novels in the last ten years that I would give five stars, but I'm not hesitating for an instant here. Cryptonomicon is absolutely amazing. It sucked me in and kept me absorbed from start to finish (and at 900+ pages, that's saying something). Having said that, though, I will proceed to complain about it. You could start with the women characters, who are entirely flat. Besides Amy, none of them are interested in anything except collecting furniture and using sex (or the lack of it) for emotional blackmail. And even Amy is completely incomprehensible. One could, I suppose, forgive him for making her a cipher--that is after all, the theme of the novel. But she comes off more like a 90's techno-geek's version of Mae West, a fantasy, takes on whatever shape Stephenson needed her to for the mood he was in. I never could understand why Randy was so in love with her. Since I'm one of the (probably)(relatively) small number of women interested in this novel, I'd guess that's not a problem to most readers. And Stephenson's women are no worse with 90% of the male characters created by women authors. It's just disappointing--the male characters are SO well-written.

But my main gripe, far more irritating than the women, is Stephenson's inability to leave anything out. I swung between awe at his verbal prowess and irritation at his editor's lack of guts on nearly every page, sometimes within the same paragraph. Stephenson's ability to turn a phrase, spin an image, see ordinary objects in some entirely new, bizarre way, is simply astonishing. But sometimes it's also just plain old tedious. There are multi-page asides on everything from pipe organs to dust devils, interesting ideas that are carried to rococo extremes lasting for pages. If he (Stephenson) had been anywhere within range when I tried to read Randy's 18-page monotype trip report while supervising my 3-year-old and his 4-year-old best friend at a Burger King playland, I would have strangled him. (and if you thought that sentence was convoluted, trust me, you will hate this book.) The lengthy asides are fun at the beginning of the book, but by the time you've read 700+ pages, you're ready to find out what happens.

But still I'd say to almost anyone: read it. It sucks you in, it makes you think (and laugh!), it's heaven on earth if what you want is an intelligent, interesting (make that fascinating) read. If the mere heft of it doesn't turn you off and its central theme (untangling cryptic information of every conceivable type, from military intelligence to the strange ways of the human heart) interests you at all, dig in, you won't be sorry. But if you want a quick, easy read that you can squeeze in between diaper changes, fair warning: this one will send you right round the bend.