Cryptonomicon

Simply wonderful

This is one of those books that never seems to end, and when it finally does, you wish it would go on forever. The writing of Neal Stephenson is absolutely second to none. It is intelligent, dense, and full of metaphors that make one laugh out loud. It also traverses multiple timelines in a compelling fashion. The characters are unforgettable -- similar to those found in Catch-22, these characters will be with me forever.

If you are into straightforward plots, do not like tangential meanderings about the mathematics behind one's sexual drive, and are not at all interested in technology, then this book is definitely not for you. If you love history, technology, scientific writing, and sheer quirkiness, this book is a must read! Just give yourself about a month to get through it -- it is not a fast read by any stretch.

7 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

Boring

I quit halfway thru the book. It's boring and confusing and drrraaaggggssss on and on.

3 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

One of the best books I've read

This was my first Neal Stephenson book, but it definitely won't be my last! He combines nerd-level mathmatics and cryptography with a Catch-22-like military pseudo-history and throws in some treasure hunting and philosophy/theology for good measure. And where else are you going to get a step-by-step instruction manual on how to best enjoy your Cap'n Crunch?

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Excellent hi tech thriller

In 1942, the US Navy assigns Captain Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse to Detachment 2702 in Bletchley Park, England, home of the Allies cryptography team. The Axis¿ codes have been previously broken. Thus, the job of this top-secret team is to keep the Nazis in the dark that the Allies know the deepest military secrets of Germany and Japan and use the information to maximize the war effort. Heading up the effort is US Marine Bobby Shaftoe.

In the present time, Lawrence¿s grandson Randy Waterhouse has inherited the family¿s brilliant math gene. Using computers, he, like his grandfather is a cryptographic expert. Working in Southeast Asia, Randy is developing an encrypted massive data warehouse to keep out corporate and government spies. Randy works with Bobby¿s granddaughter Amy. However, as the present ties back to the past, everyone wants to either steal or shut down the efforts of Randy and Amy.

The mind-boggling CRYPTONOMICON shows why Neal Stephenson is both a New York Times best selling author and a cult hero. The story line is actually two major plots that fully tie together in spite of the fifty plus years' difference. The charcaters feel genuine and the audience will root for Randy to best his opponents. However, this opus belongs to cryptography, which takes on an identity of its own. Although the depth of detail might turn off some readers, as at times it becomes difficult for those of us who think math is a second language to fully understand the coding provided by Mr. Stephenson, the fabulous novel remains fast-paced and exciting. Readers will devour the tale, codes and all. Set aside several days and enjoy the best cryptographic-based tale since Poe¿s Gold Bug introduced the concept to literature.

Harriet Klausner

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Told in two timelines, which happen to be interconnected, this b

Told in two timelines, which happen to be interconnected, this book seemed more like two different books thrown together. However, both stories are told at a breakneck pace and are extremely interesting.

My favorite fiction author

Neil Stephenson engages his readers -
If you want mindless entertainment,
You are not going to find it here :~)

Five stars

One of my favorite books. Excellent presentation of math concepts and elements of information theory in an unbelievably intresting manner. Science wrapped into a thriller. History is presented with astonishing mastery as well. From this book I learned a lot about the war in Pacific - subject almost untouced where I came from (Russia).The flavor of 1990th on the West coast is another point I cannot omit. I lived in Seattle then and Cryptonomicon seemed to take me there once again- with a hint of nostalgia. A bit envy to those who open this mazterpiece for the first time...

Rambling

Weak storylines and poor character identity.

Best

Ever.

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Worth it just for Root's explanation of Greek myth

Too much fun for both author and reader. Too bad there's nothing else like it.

Another digital parable that fails to master the aerodynamic properties of mass/gross appeal

Stephenson is plainly well versed on the nuts and bolts of the information age, but fails to master the finer aspects of 'info-tainment.' Based on this novel, he's a techie, not a storyteller. Prior to reading this book, my background in cryptography was nil, and, though the terminology was transparent enough, this book honestly read like an instruction manual. The characters were all two-dimensional cardboard cutouts interfacing with one another in offices. Though I'm always up for a well constructed WWII plot, the characters here felt as though they were grafted on from the outtakes of some 1950s black and white movie. After 1000+ pages of offices, generic submarines, etc, I felt like I didn't know a thing more about the characters as people than I did when I picked the book up off the shelf. Granted, a fast paced narrative is seldom a must for me (on the contrary, actually). That being said, there were few profound metaphors or descriptions or plot devices of any kind. This sort of book is one step above fiction writers who masquerade as non-fiction writers.

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Obtuse and nonsensical

I served in the Naval Security Group for 23 years. NSG was the navy's arm of American cryptology. I did not recognize a thing from my experiences in the book. Most notably his chapter HFDF, high frequency direction finding, was further off the mark than a reciprocal bearing

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

gimme...gimme...gimme!

This book is a chunky serving of alllll kinds of stuff wrapped. up in an lncredible story. He doesn't think out of the box. Stephenson blatantly demonstrates.There is NO box

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Wow!

this quote should answer the question, "should I read this book?"

The room contains a few dozen living human bodies, each one a big sack of guts and fluids so highly compressed that it will squirt for a few yards when pierced. Each one is built around an armature of 206 bones connected to each other by notoriously fault-prone joints that are given to obnoxious creaking, grinding, and popping noises when they are in other than pristine condition. This structure is draped with throbbing steak, inflated with clenching air sacks, and pierced by a Gordian sewer filled with burbling acid and compressed gas and asquirt with vile enzymes and solvents produced by the many dark, gamy nuggets of genetically programmed meat strung along its length. Slugs of dissolving food are forced down this sloppy labyrinth by serialized convulsions, decaying into gas, liquid, and solid matter which must all be regularly vented to the outside world lest the owner go toxic and drop dead. Spherical, gel-packed cameras swivel in mucus-greased ball joints. Infinite phalanxes of cilia beat back invading particles, encapsulate them in goo for later disposal. In each body a centrally located muscle flails away at an eternal, circulating torrent of pressurized gravy. And yet, despite all of this, not one of these bodies makes a single sound at any time during the sultan's speech. It is a marvel that can only be explained by the power of brain over body, and, in turn, by the power of cultural conditioning over the brain.

What a load of...

Sincerely, I expected tons more from Neal Stephenson. What is going on with the last 50 pages? It seems to me that he received a phone call from his editor to wrap up the book and hurriedly typed a three hour ending. There are once again many details, most of them superfluous. Come on, there are better ways to describe something while not giving the reader a hopeless state of unrest knowing that the book just drags on and on and on.

Bobby Shaftoe will live with me forever!

Neil Stephenson is a one of those writers who comes along once in an age. All of his works have left me dazzled, and the development of his characters is so complete they become members of my family. I don't always have to like them, but I can't help but love them. Awaiting a new Stephenson novel is like the anticipation of the birth of your next child. Bravo!

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

didn't know over 1000 pages could go by so fast

I waited on this book for a while because of the 1100 or so pages.
It was really enjoyable, had a lot of the interesting tech talk - similar to snow crash and probably other stephenson books.
I highly recommend it.

Ties it all together well

While I did not like it as well as the Baroque Cycle, it was a good read. One neat feature was that it made a lot of references to the aforementioned trilogy and that was fun to catch on to. The main characters are decendants of the characters from the trilogy.

Since it was only one book the characters did not develop/grow as much as if there had been more than one volume. Also, I thouht that the climax and conclusion of the book came suddenly, went quickly, and left me wondering what happened. I was not sure if all the questions were solved to the extent I was expecting. Despite that it was a fun book to read and I would recommend it to anyone.

I think this book was actually first, so most of what I said above makes sense and is quite forgivable given that data point! Too bad I am out of books about Shaftoes and Waterhouses!

A great prequel of history, science and information value.

I first read this book almost ten years ago. I enjoyed it then. A few years later, I stumbled on to The Baroque Cycle, a three volume novel by Stephenson that became one of my all-time favorite novels. Reading in the third volume, when it was obvious that there were few pages left, I was very sad that it was all coming to an end. It was the same feeling when I reread Cryptonomicon. I would say that I enjoyed this book much more the second time around.

The characters are all well-drawn and interesting. In some sense it is a prequel because it was written before The Baroque Cycle and the main characters are ancestors of several of the inhabitants of The Baroque Cycle. For me, the reader comes to care about the characters a great deal.

Stephenson's powers of description are formidable as in his painting of the winter scene at Waterhouse House in Whitman, WA. I thoroughly enjoy his sense of humor, which I find wry, dry, with clarity and intelligence. My wife often wondered about me as the book made me laugh out loud frequently, even late at night. One of my favorite scenes was when the group ran the freighter into the wall in the harbor in Norway. A sense of the absurd, very funny dialogue, great characters all involved in an action packed part of the story. Very funny, indeed.

The work of encryption and the growing importance of the flow of information in the WWII years and in the late 1990's is very interesting. Because of the exponential growth of technology, some of the "current" scenes of computer capabilities of Randy Waterhouse are a bit dated, but the use of information warfare in WWII was enlightening and thought-provoking.

In summary, I liked what one newspaper reviewer wrote: "There is a scope here, a wildness, that you rarely find in fiction today. Buckle up."

Fabulous

One, if not the, best books I have ever read and I've read hundreds. I was disappointed to see it come to an end, wondering what the characters in the book were going to do next! Alas, no sequel. I've given this book as a gift to several different people because I enjoyed it so much. It's thick, but that just means many more sessions of enjoyable reading.