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4.13 AVERAGE
4.13 AVERAGE
This book really needed a good ending, but instead, it just sort of fizzled out. Disappointing.
OK, so in 1999 I just loved this book. And I still love all of the history and cryptography parts. If only there weren't so many trash statements about women and bad romance plots. I wonder if I just skipped those parts when I read the print version vs listened to the audio
This is probably the most successful book I’ve read by Stephenson, but it still falls into the category of, well, technically you’ve written a novel territory. As a maxamilist effort, the thematic depth and range one wants from such a thing is not present. As usual, the character work dips into casual phobias, with the narrator somehow always attempting to be neutral but completely biased towards the characters’ thinking, and this dissonance distancing myself as the reader from any real suspension of disbelief.
If the goal is to show how the terrible milieu is the engine and catalyst both, for progress… it somewhat comes together, in the end. I think it could have been easily achieved, much more elegantly in hundreds of pages (easily) left off. Stephenson is fairly adroit at communicating more complex science and maths to a reader. But after reading something like, say, When We Cease To Understand the World, the comparison makes this feel like a very commercial work, and not a literary one. It doesn’t make it bad. It does make it less engaging, memorable, or impressive. In fact, that book communicates what this one does, much more to boot, and was an impactful, tremendous read.
I had this on my list only because it’s listed as cyberpunk (which it is not even remotely), and I’ve got an ongoing project to read that sub genre. This does feature cryptology and computers and various systems, but boy is it not punk, nor are the characters, even remotely. It has no hallmarks of the regular run or the post era, so I really don’t get that classification. I still own the sequel, Reamde, however. I wonder if that is and these get lumped in together, or something.
Regardless, this is more of the same from Stephenson, I think. If you already like him and you’re alright with his… quirks, I guess - you’ll probably like this, too. If, like me, you’ve never been impressed and actively disliked Snow Crash, I would advise you to move along, move along.
If the goal is to show how the terrible milieu is the engine and catalyst both, for progress… it somewhat comes together, in the end. I think it could have been easily achieved, much more elegantly in hundreds of pages (easily) left off. Stephenson is fairly adroit at communicating more complex science and maths to a reader. But after reading something like, say, When We Cease To Understand the World, the comparison makes this feel like a very commercial work, and not a literary one. It doesn’t make it bad. It does make it less engaging, memorable, or impressive. In fact, that book communicates what this one does, much more to boot, and was an impactful, tremendous read.
I had this on my list only because it’s listed as cyberpunk (which it is not even remotely), and I’ve got an ongoing project to read that sub genre. This does feature cryptology and computers and various systems, but boy is it not punk, nor are the characters, even remotely. It has no hallmarks of the regular run or the post era, so I really don’t get that classification. I still own the sequel, Reamde, however. I wonder if that is and these get lumped in together, or something.
Regardless, this is more of the same from Stephenson, I think. If you already like him and you’re alright with his… quirks, I guess - you’ll probably like this, too. If, like me, you’ve never been impressed and actively disliked Snow Crash, I would advise you to move along, move along.
Wanted to love it conceptually- but there’s a certain level of crassness in some main characters that just continues to grate on me. DNF.
I confess. I did not finish this book. I gave up about 300 pages into the book. I really enjoy reading Neal Stephenson, but this book was a slog that spent too much time jumping around. Somehow, I feel as though I have failed the author by not finishing. I'm sorry Neal, it's not you, it's me.
In print, 'Cryptonomicon' is over 900 pages long. On audio, it clocks in around 40 hours. I wish it were longer. Narrator William Dufris's performance of writer Neal Stephenson's work makes the world of 'Cryptonomicon' a place I'd like to stay a bit longer.
This is a plot-heavy novel, twining four stories across multiple decades into one whole. There's the story of Bobby Shaftoe; WWII Marine and all-around, no-nonsense ass-kicker; whose adventures take him from Guadalcanal to Sweden to the Philippines. There's Lawrence Waterhouse; musician, math prodigy, and friend of people like Alan Turing; whose adventures take him from Pearl Harbor to Bletchley Park to the Philippines. Goto Dengo, a mining engineer responsible for many of the warrens Marines like Bobby Shaftoe had to face in the Pacific, whose adventures take him to - you guessed it - the Philippines. Finally, in the plot thread taking place during the '90s internet boom, we have Randy Waterhouse; grandson of Lawrence, computer genius, and entrepreneur; whose adventures, yeah, the Philippines.
There's a lot going on here, made clear in audible format by Dufris's masterful performance. Each character gets a unique voicing and cadence: at no point is the listener confused as to who's talking to whom, and why or when. That's no small feat! Even more impressively, in a book set in the world of cryptography, Stephenson makes the math of his subject approachable to non-mathematicians. I struggled all through my math classes, from addition to differential equations, and I always felt like I knew what was going on when the author digressed into explorations of the field. Again, no small feat!
Most importantly, the audio version 'Cryptonomicon' is the audiobook version of a page-turner. While listening to this novel, I suspended my usual round of podcasts and even music. I laughed at Stephenson's jokes and Dufris's characterizations (Their MacArthur is a delight!). I wanted to know what happened next. And even with the novel juggling so many characters and time periods and my not knowing, for much of the narrative, where all this was going, I never felt lost or like the story had spun out of control.
In short, 'Cryptonomicon' is a delight. I'm glad I read it.
This is a plot-heavy novel, twining four stories across multiple decades into one whole. There's the story of Bobby Shaftoe; WWII Marine and all-around, no-nonsense ass-kicker; whose adventures take him from Guadalcanal to Sweden to the Philippines. There's Lawrence Waterhouse; musician, math prodigy, and friend of people like Alan Turing; whose adventures take him from Pearl Harbor to Bletchley Park to the Philippines. Goto Dengo, a mining engineer responsible for many of the warrens Marines like Bobby Shaftoe had to face in the Pacific, whose adventures take him to - you guessed it - the Philippines. Finally, in the plot thread taking place during the '90s internet boom, we have Randy Waterhouse; grandson of Lawrence, computer genius, and entrepreneur; whose adventures, yeah, the Philippines.
There's a lot going on here, made clear in audible format by Dufris's masterful performance. Each character gets a unique voicing and cadence: at no point is the listener confused as to who's talking to whom, and why or when. That's no small feat! Even more impressively, in a book set in the world of cryptography, Stephenson makes the math of his subject approachable to non-mathematicians. I struggled all through my math classes, from addition to differential equations, and I always felt like I knew what was going on when the author digressed into explorations of the field. Again, no small feat!
Most importantly, the audio version 'Cryptonomicon' is the audiobook version of a page-turner. While listening to this novel, I suspended my usual round of podcasts and even music. I laughed at Stephenson's jokes and Dufris's characterizations (Their MacArthur is a delight!). I wanted to know what happened next. And even with the novel juggling so many characters and time periods and my not knowing, for much of the narrative, where all this was going, I never felt lost or like the story had spun out of control.
In short, 'Cryptonomicon' is a delight. I'm glad I read it.
My birth sister convinced me to try this book after a conversation when I revealed an interest in Admiral Grace Hopper and Alan Turing. She mentioned that this book has Alan Turing in it and that she enjoyed it a lot... so, I decided I'd try it. I had *NO* Idea what I was in for. But I am really, really glad I went for the ride. And I think I will probably re-read it again later to catch what I missed the first time.
This book is unbelievably dense. I don't mean dense... like when you say someone is stupid. I mean it is packed full of information, that is within the story. It is two different stories at two different times that intertwine (sort of) about characters who are related. One set in the timeframe around now. (I don't remember the exact year, but it is close to now.) The other is leading up to, and then during WWII. There are a couple of different people that we follow during WWII, but they matter to people in the future in ways that we will not understand till much later, and unless you pay attention so... yeah, DO THAT!
You will also learn SO many things you do not expect to about computer security, and hacking while reading this book that... just, wow.
I was quite surprised.
A good deal of people in the book are geniuses, so at times you can feel a bit dim... but it does make you WANT to rise to the occasion and figure out what the heck they're talking about. At other times, I remembered my father, who fought in WWII on Guam. There are a lot of different war scenarios, and as a retired Navy Chief... I recognized fully the logic of quite a lot of what they did. There was a lot of needing to do things simply because someone else had to see it, which *seems* stupid, but the alternative... if the other side had realized that we might have cracked their code? Would have been devastating.
I really highly recommend this book. Do be in a mood for a think when you read it. Not really a book for a day when you aren't feeling well and your head is in a fog! But well worth the effort.
This book is unbelievably dense. I don't mean dense... like when you say someone is stupid. I mean it is packed full of information, that is within the story. It is two different stories at two different times that intertwine (sort of) about characters who are related. One set in the timeframe around now. (I don't remember the exact year, but it is close to now.) The other is leading up to, and then during WWII. There are a couple of different people that we follow during WWII, but they matter to people in the future in ways that we will not understand till much later, and unless you pay attention so... yeah, DO THAT!
You will also learn SO many things you do not expect to about computer security, and hacking while reading this book that... just, wow.
I was quite surprised.
A good deal of people in the book are geniuses, so at times you can feel a bit dim... but it does make you WANT to rise to the occasion and figure out what the heck they're talking about. At other times, I remembered my father, who fought in WWII on Guam. There are a lot of different war scenarios, and as a retired Navy Chief... I recognized fully the logic of quite a lot of what they did. There was a lot of needing to do things simply because someone else had to see it, which *seems* stupid, but the alternative... if the other side had realized that we might have cracked their code? Would have been devastating.
I really highly recommend this book. Do be in a mood for a think when you read it. Not really a book for a day when you aren't feeling well and your head is in a fog! But well worth the effort.
While the technical references have shown their age it doesn't harm the premise of the story. This is one of those books where the time required to finish it is not apparent by the page count. You'll end up taking tangental excursions to read up on the some of the references made in the book as supporting literature.
My main criticism of the book is that it takes a bit to wade into the meat of the story, the beginning chapters could have been leaned out a bit.
My main criticism of the book is that it takes a bit to wade into the meat of the story, the beginning chapters could have been leaned out a bit.
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Characters weren't particularly engaging besides a few exceptions. The exploration of cryptography was fun, and I liked the characterization of Turing. The attitudes towards women were unimpressive and there were no interesting female characters. Outside of the technical detail, this book was very dry and felt oddly directionless.