Cryptonomicon

Rating:
Summary: Well-written, but ending felt rushed compared to rest of boo
Review: I'm admittedly new to this genre of books. I very much enjoyed reading Cryptonomicon for the depth of detail, the parallel-plot structure, and Stephenson's wit. However, I can't imagine that this book would have much appeal to anyone other than white-male technophiles like myself. If you have no use for modern "geek-speak," you've never struggled with a differential equation, or you could care less what a Riemann-Zeta function is, you won't want to read this book. As an ex-military type, I should say I was very impressed with the military characters in the book and enjoyed Stephenson's portrayal of and respect for the Marines in particular. Bobby Shaftoe was great!

Rating:
Summary: Good book, should be shorter
Review: I think this book would double in value if its length was cut in half. It has a nice technical atmosphere - I especially like its bashing of political correctedness and academic pseudo science - but it's more a book for nerd sympathizers than a book for true nerds, there are too many small inaccuracies. For instance, swimming in the Bismarck Sea using the North star as a guide? Nah, Bismarck Sea is south of the Equator...

Rating:
Summary: Treat yourself-bury your mind in this novel
Review: Simply one of the best books I've read, and I've read a lot. Those who love hard science fiction complemented with insightful characterization and wonderful plots (from such modern authors as Greg Egan, Greg Bear, and David Brin) will find this book a home run. Though the setting is contemporary (and, in fact, historical), the bleeding edge of today's technology takes on a glow only found in the very best hard science fiction. If you can't tell, I really enjoyed this book.

Rating:
Summary: Is there an editor in the audience?
Review: When an author gets so famous that everyone is scared to edit him, this kind of novel results: it is 928 pages long but only has 300 pages of material. Who could Stephenson be writing this novel for? Not women, that's for sure, as the women in this novel are cardboard cutouts of whores, rape-fodder, spies using sex as a weapon or inscrutable CTs. Not people looking for a page-turner. Not people who have already read Kahn's "The Codebreakers." Not people who have ever worked for a high-tech start-up. It must be for 15-year-old boys. Yeah, that's it.

Suspension of disbelief is easy when a novel is a page-turner. The glacial pace of Cryptonomicon makes it almost impossible. Every couple of pages something crops up to break the spell: a problem in character motivation, a dubious plot twist, an amazing coincidence, a historical error, bizarre use of cryptography or just anger at Stephenson for going on at length about masturbation or eating cereal. (Stephenson is very keen on making common bodily functions take up a lot of pages.)

This novel is written from the point of view of five people. A very skilled writer might be able to make this work but Stephenson is just not up to the task. Even if the novel is read in a small number of sittings, most readers will find the multiple views confusing. (Stephenson even starts some chapters using "he" instead of the character's name for a page or so.) The reader also has the problem of deciding with whom to identify. Some of the characters are unceremoniously killed or kill themselves. After a while, emotional numbness sets in.

Considering that almost every character is obsessed with sex, this novel is surprisingly unsexy. Maybe it's because the character have no emotions about it other that a need to have it in any way possible. Stephenson makes the sex flat and lifeless, as dull as urinating. (Come to think of it, Stephenson discusses urination quit a lot, too.) At no time is there anything that might be construed as tenderness towards women.

This novel is not all bad; there are some bits that are quite good, in fact. Readers will have to wade through hundreds of pages of dull and ugly stuff to get to it, though. Few, other than hard-core Stephenson fans, will feel it's worth the effort.

Rating:
Summary: A summary of the preceeding reviews
Review: I can never tell with Neal. Either he is a certifiable genius or a fantastic illusionist. He manages to weave together so many elements that have obviously taken countless hours of painful research to assemble and does it with so much literary panache that he appears to be, to anyone who understands the mathematics or the literature, writing like a nerdy Tom Pynchon. Many people have many problems with Cryptonomicon, but my theory is that a book that generates such an obvious split in opinion, (i.e. either you want to have the title tatooed on your face, or find the author and spit on him) must be, at the very least, important as all hell. Nobody spews venom at a novel they consider "mediocre." They just ignore books like that. Cryptonomicon cannot be ignored. I made the possible mistake of reading it at the same time I was enjoying Edward O. Wilson's new book Consilience, so I see major connections between the two, even if they don't exist. In any event, my man Neal seems to be considering very similar questions in this novel. How do we, as bundles of cells and neurochemicals, know anything at all? How to we interpret the world so as to make sense of it? What kind of society is the best kind? Why do we do such horrible things to one-another? Stepehnson's iconoclastic answers might mislead a lot of people; politically correct academics will frown and ignorant right-wing ghouls might think he agrees with them. But a careful reading of this book can reveal a level of insight into these perfectly human questions that rivals Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and Moby Dick. That is, if Stepehnson really is a genius, and not just a clever fake who can dupe dorks like me into reading too deeply into his works. It seems as if time will make that call, and I suspect I know the answer.

Rating:
Summary: An intriguing fresh look at cryptography and computers
Review: Neal Stephenson's latest epic is an exciting, fresh look at cryptography and computers during World War II as well as today. However, this is one tale that could have benefited from a less ornate, more poetic literary style. Unfortunately it doesn't quite rises to the level of his "Diamond Age" for literary eloquence. Still it deserves to be read, if only to study the latest work by one of the best writers writing about computers and their impact on society today. I can't say I found the main characters as fascinating as those in his earlier cyberpunk novels. Those seeking literary eloquence as well as fine ideas will have to turn elsewhere; most notably to William Gibson.

Rating:
Summary: Trip out to cypher-media!
Review: A fantastic look into the mind of the cypher-freak. Stephenson takes the reader through the thought processes of cryptologists, namely one Lawrance Pritchard Waterhouse of detachment 2702 and his grandson Randy Waterhouse of Epyphite (2) Corp. At one point, Stephenson goes through a tedious explanation of how one devours a bowl of Cap'n Crunch cereal. It is a fun read none the less, and you will be the better for reading it. Definitely his best work to date.

Rating:
Summary: This book was well informed and well writen.
Review: I thought that the use of duel plots only made this book better. When it swich from one to the other it left you hanging and wanting to keep reading. Even though there was a small amount of plot manipulation Neal Stephenson deserves five stars for The Cryptonomicon.

Rating:
Summary: Completely engrossing, not quite sci-fi
Review: This book was a great pleasure, especially for a beach vacation, when I could read 6 hours a day and not feel guilty or sleep deprived. It was often very hard to put down. I found myself admiring the characters of the WWII era more than their modern counterparts for some reason. They were more ernest and less cynical, what they were doing REALLY counted for them.

The Marine Bobby Shaftoe was most memorable.

The humor, very similar to Thomas Pynchon's, was outrageous, and left me laughing out loud in two or three dozen different places. Stylistically, the book owes a genuine debt to Gravity's Rainbow.

There was nothing fictive about the abundant science, philosophy, or the mathematics. Clearly Stephenson did a great deal of in-depth research on the historicity and the Asian locals, both of which I appreciated.

It will not win a Nobel prize; but This is a fine piece of excellent writing and wit that offers a certain reader many hours of leisure time enjoyment and contemplation.

Rating:
Summary: Thoroughly enjoyable
Review: This book isn't SF--some of the reviewers who gave it low marks complain about this--but it is high tech. Stephenson is a thoroughly entertaining storyteller. There are asides (another complaint of some reviewers, who apparently would be happier with Cliff Notes rather than a rich novel), but I loved them. I enjoyed the book so much I went out and bought more Stephenson. I just finished Snow Crash, which I also enjoyed, but not as much as Cryptonomicon. This is the book I'm recommending to my friends this summer.