Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Cryptonomicon
Book Review: Amazing
Summary: 5 Stars
Neal Stephenson never ceases to amaze me. This book is a very compelling read. I was a bit intimidated by the size at first, I have to admit, but once i got about 100 pages in, I couldn't put it down. I don't want to say anything more. You should see for yourself. I also recommend reading "In the beginning was the command line.." by Neal Stephenson. It is a brilliant essay about Operating Systems, politics, business and life. :)Book Review: Amazoid
Summary: 5 Stars
It always takes me a few pages to get into a book, and this was no exception. However, once I realized how good it was getting and noticed that over a thousand pages still remained, I was pumped.Book Review: An Exquisitely Crafted Tale
Summary: 5 Stars
"Cryptonomicon," like much of Neal Stephenson's work, defies easy description. His ideas are so involved and interwoven with the text, it can be difficult to unravel the story as a whole. "Cryptonomicon" deals with the ideas of codebreaking, information security, Holocaust morality, global economics, the evolution of mythology, and the inherent insanity of war. He includes complex descriptions of encryption schemes and expositions of many complicated ideas, yet somehow manages to maintain a slick narrative.
I really cannot praise Stephenson's literary genius enough. Having read five of his books now ("Cryptonomicon," the Baroque Cycle, and "Snow Crash") I feel that "Cryptonomicon" is second only to "Snow Crash," and vastly superior to many books I have read. He manages his multiple-perspective narrative skillfully and creates fascinating characters in a wholly believable world.
Book Review: An engrossing, exciting, epic journey into a brick wall
Summary: 4 Stars
The middle-brows and genre lovers occasionally try to hoist one of the more impressive examples of their world up into the complex, literary sphere, invariably referring to whichever book it is as 'Pynchon, only funnier', 'with passages rivalling Delillo', or 'contains a vision as complete as Joyce or Shakespeare'. These twee remarks are never true. 'The Lord of the Rings' has been elevated in such a way, as has 'Dune' and 'Foundation'. Cryptonomicon, while being a brilliant novel with a plot of rare density and excitement, falls into this category. It has its cult status and biblical praise, but in truth it is little more than the sum of its parts.What Cryptonomicon has is a highly impressive, multilayered plot whose various strands move along with a laudable level of mystique, violence, and humour. You begin with three mathematicians cycling in the woods and progress into an ever-increasing and ever-engrossing plotline which takes you from modern-day computer geekdom and the legal murk of cunning business deals back and forth through the entire span of World War 2, following an army sargeant and an eccentric, code-breaking genius along their independent, but occasionally intertwined, journey into one hell of a mystery.
The main characters and the hypnotic plot are what recommend this novel. The genius code-breaker is a man of weird fascinations and his askew view of the world is consistently kept. Shaftoe, the army sargeant, is a dry and self-reliant Vonnegutesque non-hero whose inability to get too wound up by the often ferocious events surrounding him grounds the war elements in a believeable reality. Enoch Root, an officer and a cleric, is a semi-mystic who resembles the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland - another interesting character. The book's plot is colossal and, while it stays in the WW2 plotline, is never boring. New threads are added unexpectedly and Stephenson rarely lets anything dangle or become moot, though when he does it serves as a cancer on a large part of the novel. I will explain later.
The book is both aided and hindered by the writing. By and large, the book is written adequately with frequent moments of real wit. Stephenson can imbue a moment with real wonder and can create large theatres of action wherein nuances are paid attention to as well. This doesn't happen enough, though. There are sections that are written bluntly, coarsely, and without imagination. They do not belong in a book of this ambition and weaken the power which had previous being building. There are sections, most often in the contemporary plotline, which drag along blandly and add nothing to the experience but time.
The worst offence of all in this book is the ending. The World War 2 plotlines end well and set up what the reader expects to be a profound climax. No such thing occurs. A very important antagonist is done away with out of the blue in less than a page, ending a plotline which was promising to be a razor-edge, all-or-nothing climax for the computer geeks and their impossibly grand scheme. A complex antecedent plot regarding a data haven near the Philippines becomes a predicate plot about a hunt for Nazi gold. A terrible amount of anticipation fizzles out in the transition. One is led to believe this gold will finance the data haven, but it's all left unsaid in a quick and painful wrap-up.
The ending stinks and makes one believe Stephenson was either told to end it as quickly as possible for publishing reasons or he tired of the whole thing and, instead of hiding this from his readership and pushing on, thus saving the novel, he gave in and ended it all in a way not a million miles away from 'He woke up and it was all a dream'.
Nevertheless, this novel is, in the final analysis, an interesting novel with heaps of code-history and thought-provoking discussions, such as the conversation about Ares and Athena being complex metaphors for different approaches to war. Read it, enjoy it, bite your tongue when it drags, read the ending near a punching-bag, for the vast majority of the book is damn fine fare.
Book Review: An impressive novel
Summary: 4 Stars
Before Crypotnomicon I had never read any of Neal Stephenson's novels. Throughout the book I was impressed as the wild array of story lines coming from different times and many different characters slowly wove together, so I was impressed by the quality of the writing and the technical side of it.
The only shortcoming was, in my opinion, the ending. For a novel of this breadth, the climax should be pretty extraordinary and satisfying, after having built for so long. Instead the final bit left me feeling a little hollow.
That said, some might say that it's not in the destination but how you get there. Crytonomicon exceeds in that aspect. It's worth reading just for the ride. Both the technical and the human sides of the story will keep you reading (and wanting more) right through the end.