Cryptonomicon
by Neal Stephenson
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Book Reviews of Cryptonomicon
Book Review: An impressive work of a sometimes incoherent genius
Summary: 4 Stars
Looking at Cryptonomicon, my second thought was - They call this mammoth a thriller? Surely, a thriller, which should be a tight-written book by the definition, couldn't be this BIG?? (The first thought, if you are interested, was 'Wow!', because such a big book written by one person impressed me - that was before I laid my eyes on 'Wheel of Time', but I digress).
Well, to be honest, it is NOT a thriller. Now, I'm not meaning it as a drawback, I just want to set the record straight. Yes, there are men with guns and spies and submarines and codes and a very big secret, buried for 50 years, but they are not the point of this book. The point is people ... and codes.
Cryptonomicon weaves two tales - one happening during WWII, another in modern day. They are dealing with several generations of Waterhouse and Shaftoe families (those families later featured in Baroque Cycle, which takes place in earlier centuries). I don't want to give you any of the plot, part lybecause it takes around a hundred pages to get, where it is going, and partly because they are a fun 100 pages!
Stephenson is at the top of his game in this book. He knows, where his plot is going (there are some loose ends, but nothing like the ending of 'Diamond Age'), and he keeps his ramblings in check and manages to make them interesting and understandable. I mean, any author, who can write about the way the visual signal is produced in the computer monitor, and keep non-technical people reading two pages of this description with interest deserves admiration.
After 'Diamond Age', in which Stephenson so much loved his world, that he forgot the story, this book makes up for all the mistakes. Stephenson was allways good on style, but here it is never put in front of the story itself.
The main achievement is that the book is allways fun to read. Even when dealing with electrons. And as a bonus there is a wonderfull mathemetical formula of horniness. Can you say this about any other book?
Book Review: Interesting Mix of a Novel
Summary: 3 Stars
Cryptonomicon, which has been well-summarized in other reviews, is several books in one: we go back and forth between Randy in the fairly recent past, in the Phillippines, and Bobby Shaftoe and Lawrence Waterhouse during WWII. It's interesting that the more Stephenson seems to think of his characters, the less likeable they become--by far the most likeable is Bobby Shaftoe, the most average of the bunch. Waterhouse, a brilliant mathmetician, is all right, and Randy, a computer expert, is incredibly annoying. I found myself really only enjoying the half of the book that was set in the past--when we skipped forward to the future and back to Randy's snide comments about his ex's literary taste and snobbish judgements of the less computer-gifted people around him, well--the modern section was by far the weakest part of the book. This was aided drastically by something I believe other reviwers have mentioned--the women in this book are very poorly developed. Almost every time a woman is mentioned, some sexual reference to her is made within five lines. It seems like women in Cryptonomicon exist only as sexual partners for the men.
The other really really annoying thing about this book was the constant use of the term "Nippon" for Japan and "Nipponese" for Japanese. This is not a term in common usage in Japan--a country which calls itself Nihon and its people Nihonjin (a different reading). Stephenson's use of an older, more militaristic reading (that was more common during WWII) seems again a bit snobbish, like he's pointing out how much smarter his characters are than his readers.
Certainly this is true in my case--a lot of the puzzles are things I could not solve, and was not particularly interested in reading five pages about. The novel is complex and, as with the much stronger Baroque Cycle, excitingly researched. However, it is flawed in such a way that I found myself getting more and more annoyed on every page. Read it, sure, but be ready to skim.
Book Review: Magnificent Meandering
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a very "manly" book, and I'm sure I wouldn't be drawn to it upon hearing only a bald plot outline (WWII battles, ugh, data transfer protocols, boring!) but Neal Stephenson managed to not only draw me in but fascinate me for 900+ pages.This is a sprawling historical saga, rich in detail and invention, not-so-concerned with characters' emotional states but rather just what *are* they going to do next--which certainly helps propel the book forward.
The story unfolds across two timelines, and the characters of the contemporary plot are the descendents of the earlier. Since no one has any children yet at the earlier timeline, you're guaranteed a certain amount of survival from your protagonists (I always appreciate being able to relax at least a little!).
I had one false start with the book, reading about a quarter into it, then setting it aside when easier, blither books came my way. I'm delighted I picked it up again (I re-read from the beginning) and have moved on to his most recent, which details the lives of the characters' great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents (so if you like Cryptonomicon, do pick up the Quicksilver, it's exactly the same idiom).
Cryptonomicon's style is comparable to that of Dickens, in its skillful handling of numerous characters and subplots, to Tom Wolfe, in its exhaustive look at a particular subset of people at a particular time, to Victoria Holt (honestly) in its somewhat Gothic atmosphere and its sense that characters' acitivities can have implications down through generations, and to Eugene Sue, both for the well-handled theatrical sprawl and the intangible sense of purpose the characters convey. A nifty book!
Note: a 3 star ranking from me means a pleasant enough read; 4 stars indicate a very enjoyable work; but I'll only give 5 stars to books that are or ought to be classic; sadly, most books published seem to warrant 2 or less ... I try not to read those.
Book Review: THE JUNGLE BOOK
Summary: 4 Stars
When you're in a bookstore the CRYPTONOMICON doesn't look all that intimidating. You've seen tons of books this thick by Tom Clancy and Robert Jordan--and probably read some or all of them with no problem.
But online here at Amazon you only see the page numbers--a whopping 1100 + !!!
Now for the important question: Is it worth your time turning all these pages?
LOCATIONS: A book this thick has to have some interesting locations, and it does: From pre-WWII Shanghai, the jungles of the Philippines, England, Italy, Sweden, Japan and Australia. I've never been to the Philippines but I felt like the author did a good job of describing it.
CHARACTERS: There are several main characters (all male) and the author takes turns telling each of their stories, which is a good way to break up any monotony. I wasn't able to really visualize what the characters looked like, but their individual actions and adventures more than make up for that. Some characters are of the nerdy suit-and-tie type and others are of the practical military-gear toting-type.
FUN: Is this a fun book to read? If you like humor and geeky "Gee Whiz" sort of information every now and then, this book has plenty of it. I especially found the part about Van Eck Phreaking really interesting--and something only the most paranoid of people would worry about. There is lots of history, most of it dealing with the Pacific Theater of WWII that I did not know before, since most games and books seem to dwell on the European side of that War.
OVERALL: If you want to read a book with some variety in location, rich in history and sub-plots that don't seem connected until much later, then I definitely recommend this book. It's a jungle of a book, but sometimes the jungle is where you find the rarest treasure.
Book Review: A book of a higher order
Summary: 4 Stars
After reading through both the book and several of the reviews I have come to the conclusion that this book is only enjoyable under the following conditions:1) You're willing to think through a lot of the concepts: Some of the crypto/mathematics/mythology discussions can not be zipped through and fully understood. Like many other great books, this is not fast food to be consumed and thrown away, but rather a fine wine to be appreciated.
2) You must possess a significant amount of background knowledge: Math especially is troublesome on this point. Many negative reviews of this book are bascially premised on "If Stephenson wanted to write a math book, he should have just done it" To be honest, the math is not especially complicated. One simply needs to understand the way that functions operate and maybe a little bit of calculus understanding, although I don't know if it is entirely necessary.
3) You must be able to enjoy interesting digressions that have little to do with the plot: Personally I like the digressions by the two Waterhouse characters because it's the way that real people actually think: within their field of knowledge and in highly complex terms. It turns others off though as wasting pages. To be honest, I think the best parts of this book are the digressions (particularly Enoch Root's digressions on mythology and his relationship to the church).
In the end, this book is very good. The only thing that prevents it from getting the full 5 stars from me is that it really needed another 50 pages to properly end the plot, digressions or not. Stephenson's books are as much about the character's ideas as the actual character's themselves. So if you're interested in complex ideas, with some WWII and business mischief thrown in, this book is a winner.