Cryptonomicon | List Price: $8.99
Discount Price: $5.13
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Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Release Date: 2002-11-05
NOT WAR AND PEACE BUT...... [Posted on 2008-10-30]
AM I GOING TO READ A THOUSAND PAGES BY ANYONE BUT TOLSTOI? NO. BUT I AM WRONG. HAVE NOT EVEN FINISHED THIS AND CANNOT WAIT TO TELL YOU TO READ THIS BOOK IF YOU HAVE AN INTEREST IN THE NATURE OF HACKING AND COMPUTATION, IN WW2, IN EVIL, IN REAL SEXY FUN, IN THE WORLD AMERICA HAS CREATED, IN THE PHILIPPINES -- I HAVE NEVER READ ABOUT THE P. IN ANY OTHER NOVEL. SURE PARTS ARE BORING BUT DON'T SKIP. DO NOT MAKE BELIEVE YOU UNDERSTAND. REREAD AND YOU WILL LEARN SOMETHING. SOMETIMES ITS NOT A NOVEL BUT A LONG AND VERY INTERESTING REPORT. SOMETIMES ITS A TEN PAGE SHAGGY DOG STORY. IT IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN TV AND EVEN NETFLIX AND YOU KNOW WHAT -- ITS ABOUT THE WORLD WE ACTUALLY LIVE IN AND CANNOT LEARN ABOUT FROM JOURNALISM, YOUR PARENTS, MOST OF YOUR TEACHERS. THIS IS AN EXCELLENT BOOK WITHOUT EVER GOING OVER THE TOP -- EVEN WHEN HE IS METICULOUSLY DESCRIBING MASS MURDER. WHICH IS FAIRLY OFTEN. AND WHEN HE DESCRIBES THE INTERIOR OF WONDERFUL PEOPLE WHO WANT TO COMMIT MASS MURDER BUT ARE PREVENTED FROM DOING IT BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT EVIL -- HE IS EVEN BETTER. AND REMEMBER, WE LIVE IN A WORLD THAT WAS CREATED BY MASS MURDER AND ITS STILL ON THE WORLD'S AGENDA. IF N.S. IS A NERD, I HAVE A NEW FOUND RESPECT FOR THEM.
Count me as a fan [Posted on 2008-11-01]
I don't remember buying this book, but that is not uncommon for my large collection of books. Having read most of the books on my bookshelf, I decided to give this a shot, not knowing what to expect.
At first, the plot confused me. It likes to jump into flashbacks and to different times without telling you, and often is intentionally vague to force you to guess.
Then it gets really good. Between WW2 intrigue and modern day mundane chores (like 5 pages of the perfect bowl of Captain Crunch), this is literary exploration at its best. I have not laughed out loud so many times in one book since reading the entire Hitchhikers Guide series.
Brilliant.
Fantastic. Stephenson's best. [Posted on 2008-11-14]
I started reading this book thinking I had bitten off more than I could chew. By the time I finished on the 1153rd page, I wanted another 1153 pages. Between the development of exciting/intelligent/dynamic/fun characters, the storylines, the overall plot, the twists, the action, the humor, Cryptonomicon is one of my top 3 favorite novels. Though it seems long, it's difficult book to put down once you get started.
Cryptonomicon has everything: WWII action from both sides, spying, code breaking, adventure, action, humor, treasure hunting, computer engineering, hacking, sex, intrigue, covert operations, espionage, and to top it all off a love story that spans two generations. When I pictured the characters in this novel, for some reason, I imagined the characters from Ocean's 11 for some reason.
The dual storylines between WWII and current day took some getting used to, but when all said and done, was the best way to tell this story.
My only gripe is that it concluded too quickly; I could have used another 20 pages or an epilogue, but suffice to say, I love this book, have read it twice, and have reccommended it to all my friends.
Now I am reccommending it to you.
Nerds of the world, rejoice! Stephenson pens a zinger [Posted on 2008-11-16]
I am 54 years old and I am a nerd. (Sounds like an AA confession or something).
You may think Important People like George Bush or Bill Clinton or President-elect (at time of writing) Obama, or A. Lincoln, or Alexander or Ghengis Khan or Hitler or Nimitz or FDR or Churchill are the kind of guys who make the world go `round. Or try to stop it, as the case may be.
You'd be dead wrong.
An interesting thing happened in the 19th century called the Industrial Revolution. After 20,000-some-odd years of digging in the dirt the planet suddenly went high-tech. Or at least higher-tech. The IPs were shocked, SHOCKED, to find they couldn't win a war (or do much else) without tech. And where did they get their tech?
From us autistic, socially-inept, outta-the-box-thinking, harmless-appearing nerds. Stephenson gets this right, oh-so-dead-on-right, in "Cryptonomicon".
I almost never buy hardbacks any more except in extraordinary circumstances. Fellow serious bookworms will know why immediately - space. If the total volume in one's abode can be expressed as X, and the volume taken up in said abode by hardback books is .99999X, it becomes obvious that...well, you get the picture. (Omigawd, an equation - means 10% fewer people will read this review). Sooner or later paperbacks start looking like the way to go.
When I saw the big Avon hardback edition in 1999 and took a quick look, it seemed like a possibility. But what iced the deal was the inside jacket picture of a young (maybe 10 y.o.?) NTS curled up on the couch reading the Epstein's "First Book of Codes and Ciphers", a book I still have on my own shelf. Now THIS was my kinda author!
Since then, I've read "Cryptonomicon" every few years and never failed to pull something new out of it. This time it was an even better appreciation of the very digressions many of the reviewers here have taken exception to. They are brilliant little jewels in their own right. To those who fizzed through the book the first time and missed them, or even skipped `em deliberately (arrrrgh!), I say, "Read it again and slow down. Smell the coffee!"
The pages leading up to and including Lawrence Waterhouse's Big Insight at the organ keyboard are among the most hilarious I've ever read. Could only have come straight from a true nerd's heart.
About the ending. Sometimes in real life, things don't get tied up with a then-everyone-lives-happily-ever-after ribbon, or a can-you-top-this bow. Sometimes the villain wins or the hero loses, or they both win, or they both lose. The codebreaker heroes of WWII got medals and citations they couldn't publicly acknowledge for over thirty years. Many of them worked their butts off on projects the results of which they didn't even see until such information began trickling out in the early 1970s.
Many of these ops would have seemed totally absurd from the point of view of the heavily-compartmented participants. Stephenson's genius is his presentation of clandestine activities from the POVs of Bobby Shaftoe, who knows nothing, and Waterhouse, who knows everything.
After the 900-page tour-de-force NTS rolls out, about the only other ending I can envision is what I call the "up-yers ending", something like this:
"The Earth encounters a random black hole and falls into it. All life is squished into oblivion (including the characters you've read about for the past week) and the world ceases to exist. Thank you for buying this book."
THAT would've ticked off the reviewers even more.
My background includes writing ICBM flight software and service as a U.S. Navy Intelligence officer. I've read 1000s of books of all types, had three of my own published. I've never given max stars to a book before in my life. This one gets max stars. Six out of five, in fact. Stephenson wrote a book about us and he got it right.
Nerds rule.
Slow to start... fast to finish [Posted on 2009-01-08]
It took me a couple tries to get into this book... multi inch think books can be a bit daunting. However, once I was through the first section I quickly found myself infatuated. The interweaving of multiple different story lines into one tale makes for an interesting read.
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