Rating: 
Summary: Very good book, with a highly technical slant.
Review: There are only two things about this book that really tick me off. One of them is the proofing in the edition that I got. It was atrocious. There had to have been at least fifty errors with grammar, punctuation, or tense scattered throughout the book, which made it very difficult to read at times. I don't mind errors in dialogue or in first person description, but in third-person descriptions, it is unacceptable.The other problem is that it was very difficult to explain to someone, especially if you started laughing at the book. In order to explain some of the humour, the target of the explanation needs to have a lot of background in order for them to understand what you're talking about, and why it's funny in the first place. Other than those, I would recommend this book to anyone who had an interest in the philosophy of cryptology, freedom of speech, or modern technology. Being familiar with Neal Stephenson's work wouldn't hurt, either.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book (especially for high-tech workers)
Review: I may be skewed having degrees in Math and Computer Science but I think this is one of the best books I've ever read. Numerous witty asides make the book easy to read. Technical examples are fun and give the book a good pace. Parallel story is awesome. Would've given five stars if an editor had chopped about 200 pages out.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing mental workout
Review: This book was too short. I only hope that is just a beginning and that at least 2 more novels are on the way. After closing the book I felt that some friends were going away now. I miss them. I only warn you that you must put some work into thinking while you read or you won't enjoy it as much as possible. But if you do it will be well worth it. I actually worked out the physics or math instead of just passing over it as useless and it made the book all the better. Thank you, Mr. Stephenson, for a great time.
Rating:
Summary: It's worth it!
Review: I was concerned about this book--it didn't grab me until about page 200 but then it was just a Roller Coaster--much like Red Storm Rising. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Not as funny as Snow Crash, but worth reading
Review: If you enjoyed Neal Stephenson's long travel article piece in Wired on the Fibre Optic Cable Around the World project, you will see where he got a lot of inspiration for Cryptonomicon. There are of course some technical howlers: The explanation of the "strength" of various key bit lengths in Ordo , presumably really PGP, cryptography, van Eck monitoring of a laptop computer inside a prison cell (why not put a keystroke logger inside to transmit all the keystrokes ? If the laptop has a port for driving a full screen monitor, you can read the signals from this rather than from the low power lcd) The plaintext to the Arethusa ciphertext messages was presumably in German and/or Japanese rather than English How does Enoch Root get to be everywhere important over 3 generations ? Melting the buried gold with a fuel air mixture is just silly Of course there are some witty gems as well e.g. the bitchy academics trying to feel superior to a "known and convicted white male technocrat", the venture capital vultures, the games theory equal and fair distribution of the legacy, the lack of vowels in Qwghlm Well worth reading, but not as funny as Snow Crash Script Kiddy email me for details of a distributed data haven, which does not present such a tempting physical target
Rating:
Summary: Incredible, but it isn't another Snow Crash
Review: Neal Stephenson has managed to release another great book, once again incredibly well-researched. This book does not have as much action as Snow Crash, but holds up to the old standard in many ways. I never really thought cryptography could be interesting, but it was...
Rating:
Summary: Witty, interesting and packed with great color
Review: Other reader reviews criticize Cryptonomicon for being three novels in one, or not having an editor pare it down. I was glad that it was as long as it is. Have you ever read a really long, really interesting New Yorker article and wanted it to keep going? This is your kind of book. I read a lot, and I haven't enjoyed a novel this much all year.
Rating: 
Summary: Onanistic - 500 Pages Too Long
Review: Buried within this decidely average novel (if you could give 1/2 stars it would have qualified for 2.5, but it won't make it to 3) is quite a reasonable story with some hallucinogenic writing that borders on Melville. Unfortunately this whale flounders in a sea of lost opportunities. Bobby Shaftoe's haiku is ends up as a piffling plot device; Waterhouse's vision of the burning Hindenburg becomes an irrelevancy; the political, economic and moral issues regarding the deployment of a datahaven remain unexplored and ignored. And the ending. Well, why worry about trying to write the ending to a book if you can flag that there will be a sequel (particularly when endings are not your strength....). Smells like a cop out to me.... Having said that, the book does have some great moments (though most of them involve Goto Dengo) and the numerous asides are often witty and entertaining. But the lack of a serious editor to inflict some discipline upon the text means that the finished product is flabby and slothful and way to self-indulgent for its, or the author's own good.
Rating:
Summary: A really great book, seriously check out this review,
Review: This book was big when I first looked at it. At around 900 pages it was the biggest book I had ever read, but I couldn't put it down, you are following around three different stories at a time and each one has you there with the characters. Neal Stephenson has created another great work, i seriously suggest getting this book, it will be the best read you have had in years!
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant; a great read
Review: Neal Stephenson does it again. I didn't think anything could beat Snow Crash. Anyone working at a startup company will laugh. Highly recommended.
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