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A review by alex_ellermann
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
5.0
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.