Scan barcode
A review by yates9
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
3.0
Command of prose and plot / nifty translation of the technologies of cryptology to fiction / exciting war action…
The author does a great job at building a world that can carry deep description of the early computers, their mathematical drivers, the asymmetric competition for information and espionage.
The problem is a consant flipping of place, time and character through complications that are built just to drive forward. Almost everyone dies and we end on climax with little resolution.
At best what i see is a kind of technoidealism that crypto technology of all sorts means power to the “good guys” because it can only develop when open to criticism/scientism. And yet the author buries the loss of life worn through the book, in the end all that seems to matter is gold.
But maybe i misunderstood… I read the book and then tried to understand why i read the book and could not answer this.
The author does a great job at building a world that can carry deep description of the early computers, their mathematical drivers, the asymmetric competition for information and espionage.
The problem is a consant flipping of place, time and character through complications that are built just to drive forward. Almost everyone dies and we end on climax with little resolution.
At best what i see is a kind of technoidealism that crypto technology of all sorts means power to the “good guys” because it can only develop when open to criticism/scientism. And yet the author buries the loss of life worn through the book, in the end all that seems to matter is gold.
But maybe i misunderstood… I read the book and then tried to understand why i read the book and could not answer this.