Rating: 
Summary: Cryptonomicon
Review: This will be at least as influential as "Snow Crash," a book that changed the nature of virtual online chatrooms. Of all his published works, this one is the most inticately dramatic. It covers 950 pages over 50 years. I find myself reading up on codes (a subject I previously thought boring), and noticing an upsurge in offshore data haven IPO's. Stephenson has become the Jules Verne prophet of the cyberpunk set, leaving William Gibson in the dust. Out of the last 5 books, two will become classics, not a bad record at all. Lookout Sterling, this author has really found his stride! Right now, he's the best of the genre and this is his best book yet! Ignore it at your own future peril.
Rating:
Summary: Lasting enjoyment
Review: It took me a few pages to get into Cryptonomicon because it's a fairly complex affair: Three main narratives (four if you count Goto's story) intertwined with each other. Two are set in WW2, one in the present. All of them operate on a truly global scale. It must have been tremendously difficult to write this book and Stephenson has done an awesome job! Once I found my way into the story, it was a rollercoaste: the suspense keeps building up and the book is full of action, ideas, strange characters and historical, geographical and cultural background. This book could have been your three standard novels: One US Marines in WW2 action-story, one historical novel about Turing/Enigma/Bletchley Park and one Cyber/Techno/Finance thriller about building a data-haven in SE Asia and creating a Virtual Currency. But then, even with three books you would still be missing the vicious humour of the story: In parts it felt like a cross between Catch 22 and a Ben Elton novel!
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing Read
Review: This is a fascinating read. Well researched, and the characters are very human. I made the mistake of starting this book when I was pregnant. Once into the book I realized that it was not the funny, light hearted (albeit stimulating) book that "Snow Crash" was. I put the book down thinking that I would read something less 'head heavy'. After obsessing over what I had read so far, I knew it was a lost cause. I finished the book two weeks before my baby was born. Who knows, maybe he'll be a mathmetician when he grows up!
Rating:
Summary: Best in Years
Review: I have not laughed out loud this much while reading since I stumbled across a fresh-out-in-paperback Catch-22 in 1962.Most Amazon reviewers seem to comment on the soundness of the computer and crypto stuff. I suppose they are right, but Stephenson deserves further credit. As a long-time student of World War II and a fomer diplomat who spent most of his adult life in places where you cannot drink the water, I want to make a pitch for the way in which he gets his history and the feel for third world countries that want to be like the U.S., but lapse into old habits. I have never been in the Philippines, but I have been in a lot of places that smell, work -- and do not work -- just the way described. I am not a technical security specialist, but have had enough lectures about protecting sensitve information to know that the author is not making up stuff about how easy it is to filch information from the ether (or your hard drive). I also came across more than a few SEALs and special operations types and I must say that he seems to have them about right as well. This one is absolutely worth the time.
Rating:
Summary: A Feast of Words
Review: I started reading this when the first chapter was only available on the Internet. I then promptly ordered it, from Amazon, when it was published. Its taken me one year to finish, mostly because I haven't been in a reading mood for quite a few years, and my career has consumed me. Now I am back on track, and reading for pure enjoyment once again, and I have to say that this book is full of pleasure. Stephenson knows how to delight with words. He uses each page to captivate, each paragraph to smother the readier in ideas, and each sentence to tickle the readers enjoyment. Stephenson could have completed this book in a fraction of the pages, but then it wouldn't have been worth the read. Its length is bathed in talk that only a hacker could deliver, but in such a way that only a true artist of words could deploy. To sum it up in a few words, Cryptonomicon is a feast of insights and ideas for a hacker, wrapped up in an emussing dialog. It may have taken me a year, but I am off looking for the rest of Stephenson's collection to keep me entertained for another.
Rating:
Summary: I had to reboot my brain.
Review: Probably the most innovative book I've read, and I'm old enough to have read a lot. I couldn't believe how much history, technology and whatever were crammed into this book along with some sound predicitions regarding the near future, while still managing to tell a good story. Even some good humor regarding techonerds who are not always the funniest people around. I really love this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book, dragged on in a couple parts
Review: I've read all of Neal's "Major" books ('cept for that first one that's out of print now), and I rank this one right behind SnowCrash. His writing style is great for the most part, but he tends to drone on in a couple parts and I found myself rushing to get through a few of these pages, which I hate to do because I'm reading the book to read it and not skim it, but the occurance of that was little enough so that it didn't detract from the entire enjoyment I got out of reading it. If you read SnowCrash and liked it, you should like this one. If you liked Zodiac, then you will definitely like this one, it's along the same Techno-thriller lines, with some WWII combat action to boot. If you liked The Diamond Age, then you might also enjoy this book. One thing I did find myself doing a lot in this book is laughing out loud... some of the mini-scenerios (eating hash to make you want to kill people? ) are just whacked and funny. It would have been a 5 but I had to rush through some pages...
Rating:
Summary: across history, across globe, what an epic
Review: This author has taken the daring risk of telling a story that bridges WWII and Information Age, Asia and America, grandfather and grand son, history and science fiction. With incredible realism towards the grit, sweat and confusion of modern times and jungle war, Stephenson brought me to the front lines of McArthur's charge across the Phillipines to the equally agressive hallways of computer corporations. The parallels between his characters as the author takes us back and forth between both eras, especially a hacker grandson following in the legacy of his grandfather, the ultimate WWII cryptologist are delicious. Also, with three or four main characters, you get thre novels for the price of one. A special GI accomplishes strange missions in enemy turf in Italy, Finland and Asia. And an enemy engineer in the Phillipines tries to escape his last assignment, a huge underground complex which is meant to be his own grave! It also opened my eyes to several sides of the war that just can't come from a history text - such as the all important beginning and meaning of the Cryptonomican. If you're curious about history, computers, breaking codes, hacking, science fiction, WWII, adventures or the like, this thick tome is an eight course delicacy. It can be read with a technical eye, a historical eye or just for fun.
Rating:
Summary: I'm in (data) heaven....
Review: Cryptonomicon is without doubt one of the best books I've read in quite some time. The story told in this book is well thought out, well researched, and very thought provoking. A lot of modern day social issues relating to technology are explored within the context of the story. It took me a long time to read through the first 75 pages or so, but after that I could scarecly put it down. At its core, Cryptonomicon revolves around cryptography, or in other words, the art/science of encrypting information. The story follows two families who are both involved in the allies cryptanalysis and information warfare efforts during WW2 into the modern day, as they strive to create an offshore "data heaven" - and try to get rich while their at it. I wholeheartedly recommend this book, but before purchasing it there are a few warnings for the perspective reader: First, be forewarned that if you don't have a background in computers and math, Cryptonomicon may loose you in places since the author goes into a bit of technical detail from time to time. Second, Stephenson's writing style can distract from the story on occasion. By this I mean that he will occasionaly rattle off pages of uninteresting detail that also turns out to be more or less irrelevant to the story. This book could have lost 150 pages and still been every bit as good, if not better. Third, the book is a bit hard to follow - the book covers two time periods (WW2 and the present day), and several characters within each. The author freely moves back and forth between relating events in both time periods, which in itself is fine. But often we come to a passage about a character that seems to be completely disjoined from the last events the author related about the character, because the author has skipped ahead in the character's timeline so that he can relate the intervening events that occured to the character in the past tense. Unfortunately, while this is a nice literary device, it also makes following the book more difficult and even a bit frusterating at times.
Rating:
Summary: what a ride !
Review: Its been a while since I had a book that prised me away from the rest of my life so effectively and completely. But this is it. The best reviews I read in advance did not prepare me for the heft of the detail and the finely tooled fabric that enveloped me from the time I opened the first page. I am not big on reviews (this is my first on Amazon), but I would encourage any and all of you who are interested in reading the inspired musings of a true renaissance man to cancel your next week, and settle down for a read that you will not forget. The book carries two distinct time zones with a flawless execution that allowed me never to be confused, but always to be anticipatory about the next"connection". For those of us who grew up in the past two or three decades (I am 37), the novel contains some wonderfully sublime images that are woven into the overall plot. When I was 16 I first read JRR Tolkien, and the memory remains vivid. The only other book to remotely affect was very different, "The Alexandria Quartet". I am happy to say that I have found something that ranks as highly.
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