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Loading... Cryptonomiconby Neal Stephenson
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. I've always had a strong interest in both cryptography and history. This book was an amazing journey through three storylines (two WWII-era stories that end up converging together and a modern day story that also ends up tying into the other two). It was a little difficult at first to read because the book jumps between storylines, but I quickly got into the groove of it. Given the length of the book (which is fairly long), I used the breaks in storylines as natural stopping points when I needed to put down the book. While long, it is definitely an interesting tale woven through two time periods with some intriguing technical social commentary about privacy in the digital age. (  ) kislam | Nov 28, 2009 |  There are certain books that I reread every year and since 1999 this has been one of them. It’s a huge sprawling novel and to try to describe all of its plot lines would be an exercise in futility, but suffice it to say that in this multigenerational work are contemporary hackers, WWII code breakers, crusty treasure divers, psychotic marines and Japanese mine engineers. There’s plenty of math (which can be skipped if you desire), but the quality of writing, the richness of characters and the complexity of plot make this one of my all-time favorite reads. ( )2  JasonSmith | Nov 19, 2009 | Initially slow and an accelerated ending, but spectacular effort. (  ) Mithril | Oct 11, 2009 | I have pretty mixed feelings about this book. It is quite an epic romp, covering WWII and modern day simultaneously. The book tries to accomplish a lot in its 1000+ pages, and I don't think it quite makes it to the masterpiece finish line, but the ride is tons of fun. Definitely recommended to anyone with an interest in computers or cryptology. The biggest problem I had with the book was the lack of female characters or perspective...Cryptonomicon feels very much like a book written by a man, for men. The only, very few female characters are secretaries and/or sex objects, and are often described as being the polar opposite of the tech-savvy or battle-ready men. I don't think the overarching misogyny was really intentional, and I've heard that his other books contain some female main characters, but the constant feeling of "This book is full of computers and war! We are men! Only men do those things! Arr!" was pretty disappointing. ( )3 veritatem.dilexi | Sep 23, 2009 | A great book most of the way through as Stevenson does a masterful job of weaving together the storylines from WW2 and the present time. But toward the end, he just seems to give up; perhaps he just didn't have the skill to deliver the type of satisfying payoff this book deserves. And after reading over 1100 pages, the reader deserves a lot more. You just keep asking yourself, where is the sequel? And where was his editor, to send it back to him and say "Neal, you can do a hell of a lot better than this."? Lazy lazy lazy. (  ) datrappert | Sep 14, 2009 | 
 ''Cryptonomicon,'' on the other hand, is a wet epic -- as eager to please as a young-adult novel, it wants to blow your mind while keeping you well fed and happy. For the most part, it succeeds. It's brain candy for bitheads.
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