Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining but he needs an editor!
Review: This book is the second one by him that I have read, and he still is turning out entertaining books with some good points. However, he needs an editor to tighten it up. A lot of his book is showing off what he knows about Asia, and he presents essentially a 2-dimensional version of the past. He knows more than most, but his plot and characters are only a small step above typical stereotypes: the tough but smart Marine with the tough but beautiful daughter, the techie guy who really is cool and gets the tough but beautiful daughter, the smart quick-thinking sales guy, the "wacky but sexy" cryptographer and the "inscrutable" Asian characters we always see in the mass media.Still, it's a fun read. Hopefully, he will let himself be edited!
Rating: 
Summary: An ex-cryptographer's review
Review: During my military service I served as a cryptographer. Up till now I've never viewed the work I did as exciting, but after having read this book I've changed my perspectives. You can clearly tell that Neil Stephenson has done quite a lot of research in the field of cryptography and I feel perfectly at home with the plot and the details. Sure, it's imaginative, speculative; at certain points bordering on the paranoid, but that's just the way I want Neil Stephenson's books to be. More adjectives? Okay. Smart, futuristic. That goes without saying when talking about Neil Stephensons books. Oh, by the way: if you're an entrepreneur it will fill your head with cool ideas and wild perspectives. Beware!
Rating: 
Summary: Different and thought provoking
Review: This was not a cookie-cutter book. The way the plot developed was different and intriguing. Another series I've read recently that I found interesting was R. Doherty's AREA 51 series.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Amazing; a must read for computer geeks.
Review: At first Cryptonomicon was confusing because the chapters started to alternate between just before World War II and somewhere like a year from now. However, it didn't take long to establish there were two moments in the time line happening here, and that these seemingly unrelated events were being woven together in an intricate pattern. I've never encoutered a story that took this approach and managed to bring it all together at the very last possible moment and make it fit so well. Embedded within the story are references to technology that exists today -- the o/s stuff is real [BeOS,Linux], the crypto stuff [PGP] is real (and well explained!), the math is real. One really has give the author his dues when executable Perl script is a necessary part of the plot. The book was just as educational as it was entertaining. Yes, there were some noticable typos across 918 pages, but it didn't detract at all. Stephenson has a hit.
Rating:
Summary: How can he be sooo good?
Review: This book rivals Snow Crash in its grip. I found myself totally obsessed with Crytonomicon and every one of its characters. I love the way Neal Stephenson tells a story.
Rating:
Summary: Most fun Historical Fiction I've read in a long while!
Review: This book by Neal Stephenson is very unlike his other works. It is unlike his first book, _The Big U_, which is a fun fictional telling of outragious college life. (Try and find that in print!) It is unlike _Snow Crash_, his first foray into Cyber Punk. It is unlike _The Diamond Age_, science fiction nanotech meets social evolution. Don't know about _Zodiac_ because I haven't read it yet. This book is a WW2 Historical Fiction meets current day Internet business. It has very colorful characters in crazy but just on the edge of believable adventures. So, throw away any expectations of the author from previous works. I have renewed respect for the author's skill at doing well in new genre. (Unlike some authors who keep turning out the same type of crap over and over again.) There are some editorial errors in grammar that a professional editor should be embarrassed to have been paid for. But overall, very entertaining!
Rating:
Summary: Highly impressive; highly enjoyable; but a few bones to pick
Review: I have to admit, I am a perfect audience for this book. I live in Silicon Valley and work in the information industry where geeks have taken over and rigged the game so that *they* can be the heroes for once, goddammit. I loved the math, I loved the crypto, I loved the in-jokes. Heck, I'm even from the Palouse, Randy Waterhouse's home country. What's not to like, with such smooth, funny writing, such compassion for the geeks, the nerds, the jarheads, the gay math geniuses, such a wealth of invention? I didn't even mind the present tense writing; a style that is supposedly distancing read to me like a friend sitting next to me telling me this story: "So then Randy says--" I repeat. What's not to like? Uh, a few things. Minor things, really, like an overabundance of words (kinda like this review) and a weak ending that focuses on the least interesting of the two major plot thrusts, tossing in a truly bizarre and not too believable period of physical danger in which the hero--oh, yeah, that reminds me. And his women. I hope Mr. Stephenson works on his women, because there really are no women in this book. Sure, there's Amy Shaftoe, who acts tough, talks tough, and knows how to scuba dive, but in the end she exists solely to be rescued by her man. And you know, there really are women programmers out there. Even women hackers and gurus. But from the era of WWII (in which such an attitude can be excused) to the present (in which it cannot) Stephenson's women exist as goads, prods, inspiration for and annoyances to men. And that's it. Certainly not as people in their own right. I haven't read Diamond Age, but I heard the hero is female. I'll have to check it out and see if Stephenson was just giving his feminine side a rest this trip out.
Rating:
Summary: Worth waiting for! Best two books Mr Stephenson ever wrote.
Review: If you wondered, like I did why Stephenson was lying low... If you had any concern that the next one wouldn't live up, well, rest assured. The reason, I suspect, that this one was so long in coming might be simply that this novel is really two novels - each neatly developed, and expertly mixed with the other. Both storylines have great charachters, from the kind-of-wierd pacific theatre U.S. Marine non-com who seems to be washing up on beaches all around the world in some of the strangest action WWII probably saw, to the modern day I.T. entrepeneur, who's current Data management enterprise both ties him into old war history, and at the same time promises to create a shift in society of a similar magnitude to those from the end of the first half of the century. Themes:Cryptography, its wartime application, and current value as a economic tool of the information age, Business Adventure, Wargold. This book is truly compelling, funny, and insightful throughout. Hope you have a few days with nothing else to do, 'cause it could really snag you. Have fun!
Rating:
Summary: The Big Black Book
Review: Wow. This large book was amazing. It had cutting edge tech, interesting perspectives on history, and an eclectic group of characters. While the ending was better than Neal Stephenson's other works, I still found it abrupt. Every fifty or so pages, there would be an egregious typo that made me question the quality of the book, but the content far made up for any small errors. I highly recommend this book, though it may seem daunting at first.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable reading...especially for Bitheads
Review: There are multiple stories in the book, WWII era and modern, related to each other, really descriptive and at times humorous. Cryptography is the general theme that runs through the book, along with much on computers in the modern day parts of the book. This is a very good read for people who are into computers/math/cryptography etc.
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