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gendemo 's review for:
Cryptonomicon
by Neal Stephenson
I had hi expectations about this book - about how it will go into the cryptography during the wars snd after. Focussing on the second world war. Being a statistician, I was expecting a certain level of detail about the exploration and discovery of these decryption processes.
It doesn’t.
I follows 3 story lines - one in the 40’s during the war.; one which I an guessing is around the Vietnam war - its not clear; and one in the 90’s.
The second story line is completely irrelevant & useless.
The first, during the 40’s had great potential in the first couple of chapters ... but then it degenerated into a totally pointless series of evens with the only reoccurring theme being that the author clearly has issues around sex, sexuality and cum. He didnt use these character flaws in a productive sense - instead it comes across that the author has some issues that he needs to work out. There are ways to use character flaws like this in a way that supports events second to the main events ( which one would assume to be cryptography). In stead, these events - seeking sex and the constant need to ejaculate - are the main events, with the cryptography being second and coincidental and non-descriptive.
The 90’s timeline ... just has no point. It follows a seemingly not techno savvy character ( whom I still cant figure out if he is related to the character in the first time line) who travels around, decrypting cryptic emails using software. There was so many potential stories and mechanisms the author could have used - like how modern encryption and cyphers link, developed or evolved from those in the 40’s.
I have read worse, but I decided to give this a 1/5, due to the sheer disappointment. Definitely would NOT recommend.
It doesn’t.
I follows 3 story lines - one in the 40’s during the war.; one which I an guessing is around the Vietnam war - its not clear; and one in the 90’s.
The second story line is completely irrelevant & useless.
The first, during the 40’s had great potential in the first couple of chapters ... but then it degenerated into a totally pointless series of evens with the only reoccurring theme being that the author clearly has issues around sex, sexuality and cum. He didnt use these character flaws in a productive sense - instead it comes across that the author has some issues that he needs to work out. There are ways to use character flaws like this in a way that supports events second to the main events ( which one would assume to be cryptography). In stead, these events - seeking sex and the constant need to ejaculate - are the main events, with the cryptography being second and coincidental and non-descriptive.
The 90’s timeline ... just has no point. It follows a seemingly not techno savvy character ( whom I still cant figure out if he is related to the character in the first time line) who travels around, decrypting cryptic emails using software. There was so many potential stories and mechanisms the author could have used - like how modern encryption and cyphers link, developed or evolved from those in the 40’s.
I have read worse, but I decided to give this a 1/5, due to the sheer disappointment. Definitely would NOT recommend.