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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
This book was awesome. If it just followed Bobby Shaftoe and Goto Dengo it would have been phenomenal. I didn't really get into the other characters as much as these two. The crypto-analysis was fascinating but Waterhouse just didn't hit the mark for me.
Great book though. The math went well over my head, but it was still interesting.
Great book though. The math went well over my head, but it was still interesting.
I love Neal Stephenson's writing. It is so good that he makes it fun to read about math, something that I did not think was possible. When I started this book I was a bit put off by the present tense, but after I got into the plot, it was not a problem at all. The story is set in two timeframes and the characters are eventually revealed as being related to each other in interesting ways. There is a lot of talk about math and, obviously, encryption, but as I said before, it is written in such a way that it is entertaining and interesting. I am nearly finished with the book.
I was expecting sci-fi but instead found a very intriguing and exciting epic novel of World War II code-breaking, espionage, and treasure-hunting, blended masterfully with Heller-style humor and Gibson-style cyber-punk, and a heavy dose of advanced math that Stephenson is so good at weaving naturally into the story, even if thinking about such math on a deeper level would surely make me want to use a drill á la the guy in the movie Pi. I truly feel like I've been on an adventure and I'm almost a little sad that I'm done reading it. Was an excellent read!
Cryotonomicon is a long book, fortunately I liked the second half more than the first half. I prefer Stephenson's hard science writing more than this historical fiction. I enjoyed the topics to cryptography, privacy, computational ethics, and treasure hunting but it wasn't enough really draw me into the story. I never felt a strong connection with many of the characters and the constant switching of view points was a little annoying and I felt as though the pay off as more of the story was revealed just wasn't what I expected from Stephenson. Also not a huge fan of A great book. One I would definitely recommend to people interested in World War II history and cryptography, but not one that I'm going to be rereading too soon.
Spoiler
that ending. I thought it was going to keep going. Are we to assume that everything went well after that? Are the antagonists going to let up? It didn't feel very resolved to me.
Despite the four star rating, the experience of this book was a bit.. odd. It's about 1160 some pages, but it didn't feel like the plot started getting going until about page 1000. And then the climax happens at about page 1120 (ish, not going to look it up exactly). And a very quick denouement.
So. A thousand pages of build-up and character development. And then BAM, Japanese (or Nipponese for which the book makes a case) and Nazi gold, a special submarine, the name of a china pattern (china with a small c implies dishes, right?), an ex-priest as deus ex machina (I thought that guy died? maybe I wasn't paying attention). And then the end. Poof.
The four stars are for the clever build-up. It was worth it. And I'd read Stephenson again.
So. A thousand pages of build-up and character development. And then BAM, Japanese (or Nipponese for which the book makes a case) and Nazi gold, a special submarine, the name of a china pattern (china with a small c implies dishes, right?), an ex-priest as deus ex machina (I thought that guy died? maybe I wasn't paying attention). And then the end. Poof.
The four stars are for the clever build-up. It was worth it. And I'd read Stephenson again.
Herr Doctor Lutz, principle design engineer, impeccable floating-point mathematician and pervasively dear friend, finally convinced me to read [b:Cryptonomicon|816|Cryptonomicon|Neal Stephenson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1157396454s/816.jpg|1166797]. It took me three attempts, but I did ultimately manage to scale the ramparts of [a:Neal Stephenson|545|Neal Stephenson|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1192826259p2/545.jpg]'s brio. Herr Doctor calls the novel “mathematician’s porn," while the NY Times calls it "brain candy for bitheads." I call it something much simpler: improbable, but fun.
I enjoyed the book, after I got to around page 200 or so. It's a slow start. Then it rumbles along, delightfully mixing together storylines and entrancingly exploring the mathematician’s foibles. It’s intensely fun, sometimes. Stephenson’s digressions into just about every nook and cranny of the mind of the mathematician delight me. He so perfectly captures the kind of mind that sees a gold bar as merely a “bulk sample of a chemical element.” Or as one character describes men like himself: “Our social deficiencies, lack of perspective, or whatever you want to call it, is what enables us to study one species of dragonfly for twenty years, or sit in front of a computer for a hundred hours a week writing code. This is not the behavior of a well-balanced, healthy person, but it can obviously lead to great advances in synthetic fibers. Or whatever.” This befuddled yet gifted mind, I love. So yes, I’m often entranced by Cryptonomicon’s characters.
But dear god this book needed a stronger editor. It’s not that Stephenson can’t write. It’s that he can’t stop writing. He himself is a geek, a qualified owner of an Asperger mind. His mind diverts into everything and attempts to juggle major flaming storylines, but ultimately, the storylines don’t get caught so much as snuffed out. Stephenson scrambles and tries to wrap up the behemoth novel into his own semblance of moral order. The hacker cum protector of humanity cum trickster, Randy Waterhouse lives up the legacy of his grandfather (also a mathematical theorist cum protector of humanity) and manages to keep the evil, ambiguous Big Brothers of the world from using WW2 Japanese bloodgold for nefarious purposes. He manages to do this despite all manner of impediments, including primitive arrows imbedded in his girlfriend’s leg by a crazed neo-Luddite lawyer with a vendetta. Sound confusing? It is. There are at least four major storylines here, all with intersecting characters and chronologies. It’s a loopy wild ride with lots of improbable scenarios.
Early in the book, Randy Waterhouse compares himself to a Tolkienian Dwarf. But it’s more accurate to say he’s a Techno-paladin. Stephenson envisions a world where the hackers can be the moral defense of the planet. The true push of the novel relays Stephenson’s exquisite characterizations of the mathematician/coder/engineer in all his glory⎯his mind befuddled by the strange illogical humans around him as he is driven to save those very humans with his technological acumen. It’s good versus evil. Violent Big Brother versus Free Information protected by the technocrat: “the only way to fight the bastards off in the end is through intelligence. Cunning. Metis.”
In the end, as much as I love Stephenson’s ability to capture the intensity and charming abnormality of mathematicians, I can’t help but wish for better story cohesion and less moral proselytizing.
I enjoyed the book, after I got to around page 200 or so. It's a slow start. Then it rumbles along, delightfully mixing together storylines and entrancingly exploring the mathematician’s foibles. It’s intensely fun, sometimes. Stephenson’s digressions into just about every nook and cranny of the mind of the mathematician delight me. He so perfectly captures the kind of mind that sees a gold bar as merely a “bulk sample of a chemical element.” Or as one character describes men like himself: “Our social deficiencies, lack of perspective, or whatever you want to call it, is what enables us to study one species of dragonfly for twenty years, or sit in front of a computer for a hundred hours a week writing code. This is not the behavior of a well-balanced, healthy person, but it can obviously lead to great advances in synthetic fibers. Or whatever.” This befuddled yet gifted mind, I love. So yes, I’m often entranced by Cryptonomicon’s characters.
But dear god this book needed a stronger editor. It’s not that Stephenson can’t write. It’s that he can’t stop writing. He himself is a geek, a qualified owner of an Asperger mind. His mind diverts into everything and attempts to juggle major flaming storylines, but ultimately, the storylines don’t get caught so much as snuffed out. Stephenson scrambles and tries to wrap up the behemoth novel into his own semblance of moral order. The hacker cum protector of humanity cum trickster, Randy Waterhouse lives up the legacy of his grandfather (also a mathematical theorist cum protector of humanity) and manages to keep the evil, ambiguous Big Brothers of the world from using WW2 Japanese bloodgold for nefarious purposes. He manages to do this despite all manner of impediments, including primitive arrows imbedded in his girlfriend’s leg by a crazed neo-Luddite lawyer with a vendetta. Sound confusing? It is. There are at least four major storylines here, all with intersecting characters and chronologies. It’s a loopy wild ride with lots of improbable scenarios.
Early in the book, Randy Waterhouse compares himself to a Tolkienian Dwarf. But it’s more accurate to say he’s a Techno-paladin. Stephenson envisions a world where the hackers can be the moral defense of the planet. The true push of the novel relays Stephenson’s exquisite characterizations of the mathematician/coder/engineer in all his glory⎯his mind befuddled by the strange illogical humans around him as he is driven to save those very humans with his technological acumen. It’s good versus evil. Violent Big Brother versus Free Information protected by the technocrat: “the only way to fight the bastards off in the end is through intelligence. Cunning. Metis.”
In the end, as much as I love Stephenson’s ability to capture the intensity and charming abnormality of mathematicians, I can’t help but wish for better story cohesion and less moral proselytizing.
Well, this book definitely challenged me in ways a book read for pleasure never really has before. I added so many words to my Kindle dictionary flashcards that I can definitely see my vocabulary improving as soon as I study up!
It took me a few chapters to really understand the structure and flow of the book. There are several storylines taking place, that don't begin to converge until a few chapters in. This novel really went out into the geekosphere, which was amusing but at times a bit much.
Overall, a pretty good book with some amazing characters, which introduced me to some new topics of thought that I had not explored previously. I'll be reading Stephenson's Snow Crash soon.
It took me a few chapters to really understand the structure and flow of the book. There are several storylines taking place, that don't begin to converge until a few chapters in. This novel really went out into the geekosphere, which was amusing but at times a bit much.
Overall, a pretty good book with some amazing characters, which introduced me to some new topics of thought that I had not explored previously. I'll be reading Stephenson's Snow Crash soon.
I find that most books in the 1000-page range could shed at least 10% of their weight without hurting the story; this book is an exception. It's also free of any sort of prediction - I really couldn't tell what was going to happen next from page to page.
I found this book stretching my brain, as I know almost nothing about cryptology, but not so much that it was painful to read. The story of Sargeant (Extraordinaire) Bobby Shaftoe was my favourite part of the story.
I found this book stretching my brain, as I know almost nothing about cryptology, but not so much that it was painful to read. The story of Sargeant (Extraordinaire) Bobby Shaftoe was my favourite part of the story.
If you're a computer nerd and you haven't read this book, what the heck is wrong with you? Seriously though, this is dense, hard-core intense reading. There's just something about Stephenson that will you make you think mid-page to the point that you kind of forget the story.
[book:Cryptonomicon] was all-encompassing... something for the geek in me, something for the former Marine in me, something for the Perl programmer in me... there was even a bit of a love story (that strangely left me sick to my stomach in the end). Brilliant.