Cryptonomicon

Rating:
Summary: A new Synthesis for Stephenson
Review: In this new work, Stephenson combines the wit in Snow Crash to the intelligence in Diamond Age to provide a true pleasure to read. He supplements his dry humor with detailed and well-researched information that echoes his cyberpunk novels, but is a far cry from that. All in all, he enters new territory and succeeds impressively.

Rating:
Summary: What happened to the End?
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book - up until the last 100 pages. The ending struck me as the Author becoming impatient - with an urge to just wrap everything up. The Author spends 800 pages explaining situations in excruciating detail; however, towards the conclusion he fails to follow the same methodology.

Rating:
Summary: Beyond Cyberpunk, Beyond Gravity's Rainbow
Review: MAYBE an exaggeration to say that Cryptonomicon goes past Gravity's Rainbow, but it's in the same league. With a difference (the difference engine). Not for the faint of mind.

Are you interested in cryptology, and already well informed in the subject? If you are, you'll enjoy this book immensely.

Are you ignorant of cryptology, but wonder what all the fuss is about with Turing, the computer, and 128-bit encryption? You should definitely read this book, because it gives an extremely informative, highly entertaining, Pynchonion introduction to the subject as a subtext to the wild world in which it functions.

Rating:
Summary: still cyber, not as much punk, not always a bad thing
Review: The beauty of Stephenson's work has always been the depth of research into the subject, and this is no different. Although Cryptonomicon is not sci-fi, i think it will still have enough technical jargon to keep the cyberfiends interested, with story flashing from a modern day information storage company to second world war ancestors of these characters. The second world war stories are based loosely about code breaking (funnily enough), the effect that it had on the outcome, and also, the lengths that were gone to to hide the fact that codes had been broken. Stories of different characters merge and split with gay abandon, leaving you wondering who will meet up with who next, or who's relative will emerge in the present day story. To be brief, it is a joy to read. Technical data on code breaking which could have started to bog the book down, becomes as easy as 'pooning a cab in Stephenson's agile hands. Don't get me wrong, it is a different read to his past stuff, but with the promise of more books in the series (not sequels, just more people with a connection to crypto) it may be the brink of a new style. If you can get your hands on the hardback copy you will see that the attention to detail does not even stop in the narrative, with pages cut to different sizes in order to artificially age the book. Great story, beautiful book, fantastic author.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: All his books are great. This is the best so far. It has the added advantage of giving you a short course in cryptography and a rousing portrait of WWII code breakers.

Rating:
Summary: 1,000 pages? Not long enough!
Review: _Cryptonomicon_ is a bit of a departure from Stephenson's last two, in that it takes place NOW. I wasn't sure if this would be a problem, since _Zodiac_ is definitely weaker than _Snow Crash_ or _The Diamond Age_. Happily, I have to say the only problems I had with this book were A) it ended, and B) the ending seemed a little off to me. That may just be because the lead-up was so strong, or may be sour grapes. As for the rest of it, it's Stephenson at his finest. The style is his usual combination of lyrical intelligence with bursts of earthy straight-talk, only this time more humor got stirred into the mix. I burst out laughing at least five or six times while reading. There aren't many writers that can do that to me in a non-comedy. His characters are spot on, and the plot is actually consistent with them! Most writers who put this many twists into their stories get a little too clever, in my opinion, pushing intricacy at the expense of credibility. Ol' Neil manages the balancing act rather nicely; he always remembers that he's telling a story, not coming up with brainteasers. I don't know anybody else writing in the sf/tech field that does it quite this way, and darn few who do it as well. If Joseph Heller had teamed up with William Gibson to play the fly in "The Fly", and Thomas Pynchon had stepped into the other booth, Neil Stephenson might well have wandered out of the steam when the door opened.

Rating:
Summary: Great book, needs better wrap up...
Review: Loved this book. As a person who is surrounded by the start up dot com companies and the gold rush fever of the Bay Area I understand much of the computer industry he speaks about. Also I loved that this book was long and drawn out. The plot development I think is Stephenson's strong point and, is one of my primary reason for liking his books.(sometimes I wish the book would not end )

My only complaint are his endings. They seem very anti-climatic and lacking flare. It bothers me enough to write something about it but, not to dissuade someone from reading any of his books. The gains far outwiegh the negatives on this one.

As other reviewers had mentioned earlier, don't let the crypto and math scare you. I am the most unanalytical person in the world. When I got to a couple of sections where he went into Crypto or anything with math, I kept the faith read a few pages and, like a shot it was over before I knew it.

Overall best book I have read this year.

Rating:
Summary: A decidedly mixed bag - but well worth it.
Review: First of all, let me dispel something straight from the start. An awful lot of people have been making some rather shocking comparisons between this book and the Illuminatus! trilogy. I want them to stop right now. Stephenson is not above trying to achieve the same vibe, but it falls deadly short. In Illuminatus!, when a piece of the puzzle fell into place, you leapt up and down and shouted "yes! yes! yes!". With Crypto, it's more like, "oh... well, yeah, I guess". The one or two trippy scenes do more to detract from the story than add to it. Never mind the fact that comparing anything to the Illuminatus! trilogy is like trying to find a poster to compare to an original Picasso... it ain't gonna happen any time soon. Stop with the Illuminatus! comparisons!

Now, as for the book itself: It's good, but you have to commit to it. For the first half - yes, half - you may suffer under the burden of a plot that goes nowhere - heck, isn't even a plot! - and really really two-dimensional characters. But by halfway through, the two stories - WWII and sorta-present - start to converge and things start happening and the characters start evolving and you sigh heavily in relief. From there on out there are few problems. It gets pretty hilarious in places, and some parts started music action pounding in my head - which is good.

Careful however. This book is decidedly lacking in twists. Oh, it LOOKS like there are twists, but they really aren't twists because when the twists are tied off it is always in some mundane and rather obvious manner. Then again, some twists are just left hanging. Why the heck does that guy turn up in the jungle? So does this guy die or what? Why put those in if you're just going to ignore them later? Stephenson could have written juuuust a little more and left me much more satisfied over all.

And don't let the crypto-babble make you think this is a book that is about crypto! It ain't. The technical rants are about as complex as a four-piece puzzle. You won't learn anything about number theory, cryptoanalysis, heck, nothing even about maths, from reading this book. The book description might try to convince you this book is actually about a code called Arethusa. This code comes up and is practically ignored as a plot device and eventually rendered obsolete.

However, where the book his HEAD ON is with its skilled depiction of some very contemporary struggles, and with its wonderfully lush WWII scenarios. This might as well be a primer for fighting a Big Brother-esque information-society, and what makes it even more creepy is that almost everything that happens in this book is happening RIGHT NOW, although the places they're happening in have some more realistic names ;-)

All in all, this is a fine read, but not for the faint hearted and not for those actually seeking to get a whole lot out of it. This is an odd criteria, to be sure, but as truthful a one as I can manage.

Rating:
Summary: Cryptonomicon
Review: I found the book fascinating. The way the people who share last names with each other in different timelines slowly come together is intriguing. The language often rises to near hilarious poetical heights. The language is the best feature of the book though the complicated plot is excellent. The ending was disappointing. After all the great material in the entire book the ending was just too convenient and easy.

Rating:
Summary: Far Too Long
Review: Although the book is humours and very clever at times, these funny and witty places are undermined by the often lengthy and dull descriptions. Worth the read if you have a lot of time.