Search - Cryptonomicon

This was an interesting read. At a bit over 900 pages in an oversized paperback edition, it was a huge, long read as well.

I enjoyed this book a fair bit, actually. The first third or so might have been a bit slow - it took me a long time to get through it - but the rest went reasonably quickly. This is a geek book, though. It discusses any number of topics in depth, possibly far more depth than you're interested in reading if you're not a geek. Happily I am a geek and it worked well for me.

The plot revolves around the interconnected lives of several people at two different times: during the second world war and now. In particular we follow a marine in WW II, and cryptographer and mathematician working in WW II, and a programmer working now. Others factor in, of course, but those are the three main points of view. The marine winds up doing and seeing all kinds of interesting things during the war, some of which are never adequately explained, the cryptographer is more straight forward in some ways, and the programmer could be any of a number of people I know, at least in terms of background.

I think that - apart from it's sheer size - Cryptonomicon is an approachable book by Stephenson. I've read two others by him Snow Crash and The Diamond Age. For my money, this may be the best of the three. If you're looking for something substantial to read, this might be it.

This book is not the type my bookclub usually reads, so when one of the members selected it, I was leery. Then I bought it and was further daunted by the size. However I LOVED it. I don't think I have ever read a book that I found so engrossing. It zoomed to the top of my "Best Ever" list and a copy still sits on my "SAVE" shelf.

Very enjoyable, and pretty close to a page-turner. Typically Stephenson in style, with loads of detail and interesting subplots.
The problem is that there are so many side plots raised during the course of this very long book, that many of them are completely unresolved. You are left at the end with so many questions that it's rather unsatisfying. And it's not that they are completely peripheral, because the author belabors some of those unresolved points at great length.
I liked the book, and I'm glad I read it, but it could have been much better edited.

It's been a long time since I enjoyed an author's mastery of hyperbole and colorful descriptions of characters and their actions as much as this book, to the point where the plot seemed almost irrelevant at times. The jumping around in time and location was a little hard to follow occasionally, but seemed to come together well at the end. I'm looking forward to reading his other books.

A favorite of mine.