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A review by ptankha
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
adventurous
challenging
funny
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
I've never really gone in for historical fiction, so Cryptonomicon, a book that claims to straddle both history and science fiction, seemed like a good place to start.
That's what I thought before I started. A few pages in, I was daunted to say the least. This book is DENSE. Not just in the lengthy-descriptions manner of speaking. It's been written by a man with a nearly encyclopedic knowledge of everything even tangentially related to the subjects he writes about, and it shows.
That's not to say that Stephenson is flexing his admittedly impressive grasp of everything from World War 2 history to modern day digital cryptography. In fact, he's kind enough to slow down now and then, and let his readers fully digest the more technical jargon he's putting out, page after page.
Once you come to terms with that fact - that this is a book occasionally indulgent enough to feature 3 pages of graphs dedicated to the relationship between the frequency of orgasm and mental clarity, it's a hell of a ride. But again, it's a ride that's not for the faint of heart, or for the "numerically challenged" as a college professor of mine used to say.
That's about as much as I can say without giving away spoilers. This is a book that demands your complete attention, and rewards your intelligence in a way that I haven't seen since the Artemis Fowl books of my childhood. Breathtaking in ambition, riveting in execution. I'd like to think I finished this one book a better informed person than I was when I started it.
That's what I thought before I started. A few pages in, I was daunted to say the least. This book is DENSE. Not just in the lengthy-descriptions manner of speaking. It's been written by a man with a nearly encyclopedic knowledge of everything even tangentially related to the subjects he writes about, and it shows.
That's not to say that Stephenson is flexing his admittedly impressive grasp of everything from World War 2 history to modern day digital cryptography. In fact, he's kind enough to slow down now and then, and let his readers fully digest the more technical jargon he's putting out, page after page.
Once you come to terms with that fact - that this is a book occasionally indulgent enough to feature 3 pages of graphs dedicated to the relationship between the frequency of orgasm and mental clarity, it's a hell of a ride. But again, it's a ride that's not for the faint of heart, or for the "numerically challenged" as a college professor of mine used to say.
That's about as much as I can say without giving away spoilers. This is a book that demands your complete attention, and rewards your intelligence in a way that I haven't seen since the Artemis Fowl books of my childhood. Breathtaking in ambition, riveting in execution. I'd like to think I finished this one book a better informed person than I was when I started it.