I took my sweet time with this one, and I am glad I did. The ambition here is sky-high, and Stephenson masterfully transforms it into a captivating and profoundly resonant journey. The characters' odysseys through time and space are not just entertaining but downright emotional. Just the sheer volume of WWII trivia I picked up makes this a worthwhile experience. This book offers a dazzling narrative, heart-racing action, delightful dives into philosophy, history, math, and cryptography, all topped off with a gut-wrenching finale. Easily one of Neal Stephenson's finest works.

This book felt a lot like Neal Stephenson trying to channel Thomas Pynchon. Maybe it's because the last two Pynchon books I've read had the same settings as the storylines in this book, but the joint characteristics of overshared micro-details, serendipitous run-ins with major historical figures, and poorly-calibrated tangents were strong. Unfortunately, I don't think Stephenson got close to Pynchon's level of writing.

There were definitely some things I enjoyed, including a significant dose of cryptography and cryptographical history. Additionally, Stephenson's uncanny ability to predict the future is showcased at length, as he basically explains the purpose and value of Bitcoin through his characters. Of course, this was written nine years before Bitcoin was a thing, and there's even a (somewhat flippant) theory on Twitter that Stephenson is Satoshi Nakamoto himself. There's also a fun obfuscated Perl program, and a few nuggets about grep and the like. Not to mention Stephenson bringing in another person who would be much more famous now than then: Bruce Schneier provides an appendix on a cryptographic theory used in the book, five years before his blog started and even before he coined the term "Security Theater."

While I've enjoyed a lot of Stephenson's work in the past, it just felt gratuitously over-wrought here; most of the book I was just counting down until it was done. The book could have been cut by 50% and retained its storyline and cryptographical detail. There was also a little more bizarre stereotyping and uncomfortable pigeonholing than I would have liked – the few and poorly-written female characters were especially grating. I would hope that a similar book written now would strive to be a little more aware of those issues.

In general, I can't really recommend this to anyone; if you're looking for great Neal Stephenson, choose Diamond Age; if you're looking for a book on cryptography in fiction... I'll let you know if I find one.

4.0 stars. I am glad I finally got around to reading this as I had read so many sterling reviews and I am a big fan of Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash and The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer being two of my "All Time Favorite" novels). While not enjoying this as much as the two aforementioned books, there is no doubt that Stephenson can write and write well. The plot is complex, taking place in two time-lines (World War II and today) that eventually tie together, and containing a myriad of superbly drawn characters.

This is a very long book (over 900 pages) and there were times that the pacing seemed slow (hence the 4 stars instead of 5). That is about the only criticism I can give to this excellent book. Recommended!!!

P.S. I listened to the audio version of this book (just under 43 hours)read by William Dufris and he did an excellent job (for those of you who listen to audiobooks).

Nominee: Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Novel
Winner: Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
Nominee: Prometheus Award for Best Novel

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson is an epic cross between science fiction and historical fiction. It involves Nazis, Japanese, and WWII, and the interesting field of cryptology and cryptocurrency, code breaking, computers, and gold.

I read the audiobook. The plot is so descriptive and intense that one loses sense of it at times when reading with breaks. The narration, in itself, is excellent.

I have made a mistake by not consuming the printed word for this title, so I would want everyone reading this review to actually read this book and not rely on the audio version. I understand it is lengthy, but this is the only way to truly recognize the sheer brilliance of this work by the genius Stephenson. I am definitely going to read his next book (whichever I pick next) and not listen to it.

My rating partly reflects the bad experience I had with the audio book version, and in no way completely reflects the book an its contents.

First time I read this I was enthralled. That was a few years back. I still loved it- for the most part. A few lengthy passages about ejaculations and some comments on women didn’t seem necessary.

However in terms of a story about cryptography during WWII and a conspiracy to hide and find Japanese gold-great fun. The author writes amazing sentences and I imagine him hyped up on caffeine all the time. Narrator for audiobook was terrific too-all 40 hours of it!

An amazing and massive story of code-breaking during WWII and establishing a data haven in the present. Great characters, an intricate plot, and the most hilarious and ironic narrative voice ever, this was a definitive work for the erudite, info-dump loving Stephenson. There are so many self-indulgent tangents on esoteric lines of geek trivia, but this is an integral part of the author's voice. Though one would think a 910 page story would drag, I found myself increasingly drawn by the interweaving stories, and was sad when it came to an end. A wild and unique story unlike any other!

This book came highly recommended by many friends and reviewers, and I'm a big fan of Neal Stephenson based on Snow Crash and The Diamond Age. It did not disappoint. I will soon tackle the next door-stopper he wrote, Anathem, before someday taking on the imposing Baroque Cycle.

A masterpiece of humor, history and cryptology.

Cryptonomicon was both totally hilarious and brilliant. This was hilariously written in a sort of hybrid style of P.G. Wodehouse and Vonnegut. Stephenson adopts a tone that completely undermines the drama of WWII and weakens it to a charade run by very few players who are trying to win the battle of information: decryption. It's a story about the power of sheer intellect and nerdiness and how it was what really won the (somewhat fictionalized) war and how the same nerds are the ones who are protecting our data today. The story is told over large swathes of time (1940-50s and then the 1990s during the early internet age) and has dozens of settings around the world. The characters (Shaftoe, Waterhouse and Randy) are all totally flawed, brave, brilliant and lovable.


I think this was an entirely self indulgent work for Stephenson. He clearly is extremely knowledgeable about decryption, coding, engineering, mathematics and many other disciplines. For this reason, the book runs a little long. It didn't have to be 900 pages to tell this story. I think some editor came along while he was writing, tapped him on the shoulder and said "Neal, time to wrap this thing up". I thoroughly enjoyed the ride but not everyone will. You can probably clock out at about two hundred pages if you're not into it. If you are, this is a wholly unique book and worth your time.

Many books have a narrow target audience. There are books written for Catholic theologians, bored housewives, children between the ages of 8.75 and 9 years old, and so when I picked up Cryptonomicon, I was sure I had found the book written for an engineer who works daily with big data.

Unfortunately for me, I am a woman. And this book was not written for someone who likes women.

Our story has three main heroes, Bobby Shaftoe and Lawrence Waterhouse (who are WWII participants), and Randy Waterhouse (Lawrence’s descendant). We are also introduced to America Shaftoe, Bobby’s granddaughter, but as she only exists to be virginal and desirable, she really doesn’t count as a main character. The story weaves back and forth between our three plucky heroes as they save the world, ejaculate excessively, and preach that a college education is something the liberal elites cooked up to keep the true innovators down.

Every single main character has a similar internal monologue. All go on wildly long, multipage thought-spirals ranging from ejaculation (and yes, I read more about semen in this book than in my high school health class), Capn Crunch cereal, and pipe organs that do nothing but show us that the author has one idea of what a protagonist should be. If it hadn’t been for the convenient chapter breaks before switching POVs, I would truly have struggled to differentiate between Larry, Randy, or Bobby. They all think the same, they all speak the same, and they all want to fuck the same types of women: quiet, pure, and beautiful.

Let’s take a momentary break from the review to appreciate the writing of our intrepid author: “He pours the milk with one hand while jamming the spoon in with the other, not wanting to waste a single moment of the magical, golden time when cold milk and Cap’n Crunch are together but have not yet begun to pollute each other’s essential natures: two Platonic ideals separated by a boundary a molecule wide. Where the flume of milk splashes over the spoon-handle, the polished stainless steel fogs with condensation. Randy of course uses whole milk, because otherwise why bother?”

How about another quote: “Trapped in a window seat during a short and choppy flight, he had never made it out to the lavatory, so he goes to one now and pees so hard that the urinal emits a sort of yodeling noise.”

And finally, my favorite: “Then he pumps something like an Imperial pint of semen—it’s a seemingly open-ended series of ejaculations, each coupled to the next by nothing more than a leap of faith that another one is coming—and in the end, like all schemes built on faith and hope, it lapses…”

Ah, how wonderful. Maybe another just for good measure: “Horniness begins at zero at time t = t0 (immediately following ejaculation) and increases from there as a linear function of time. The only way to drop it back to zero is to arrange another ejaculation.”

Now, you might be wondering, if Neal Stephenson writes men this way, maybe he hates men and not women! Oh, you’d think that, except that every female character apart from Amy Shaftoe are barely footnotes in the tale and simply exist to pop out enough babies that Randy Waterhouse and Amy Shaftoe are able to exist.

As for Amy? Her character was truly fully realized when she berated Randy for not fighting with her and trying to apologize for yelling at her. You see, Amy wants to be yelled at. Any woman who doesn’t like being yelled as, such as Randy’s evil ex, aren’t the ones that you settle down and marry. Amy is not like the other girls. You see, she’s desirable and sexy and can kiss incredibly well, but she’s also a virgin. You can also verbally abuse her. Everyone’s dream!

Now, onto my final complaint with this disastrous novel. For a book supposedly based on cutting edge mathematics, it is exceptionally anti-education. Larry Waterhouse, our hero who fails out of college, invents the digital computer and RAM. Randy’s ex-girlfriend is, and is surrounded by, narcissistic college professors, unable to recognize Randy’s genius. The true mastermind, Turing, is barely mentioned apart from a deeply boring chapter or two in the beginning.

That’s when it hit me. This book is NOT for a university educated engineer who works in corporate America analyzing data. This book is for the college dropout, who instead of looking inwards for their failures, decided to blame others. They were not failures, they were the true geniuses who the evil, liberal professors did not understand. This book is wish fulfillment for that type of reader, and with that in mind, everything made sense to me.

So, if you are a well-adjusted adult who does not feel a slight distain for every woman you meet, this book isn’t for you. However, if you are a repressed genius who would only be a billionaire if your awful professor didn’t force you to write essays about why ethics are important in engineering, you’ll have a ball.

TLDR: This book is crypto-bros distilled down onto the page. And much like a crypto-bro, didn’t know when to shut the fuck up.

0/5 stars. Neal Stephenson, may whatever gods you believe in have mercy on your soul.

it took me a month to get through this book. amazing, considering my usual speed with the written word, but quite true. this behemoth refused to be devoured in my usual hours-at-a-time fashion, nope. more like very high quality cheesecake, in that it's so rich you can only take a few bites before you need to assimilate.

part of the story is about a WWII GI, who happens to be so gung-ho and talented at both completing difficult missions successfully and staying alive at their completion that he gets the dubious honor of being assigned to a squad so top-secret he has no idea what he's doing there. part of the story is about a brilliant but oblivious mathematician (clearly an asperger's syndrome kind of guy) who becomes a codebreaker during the same war. and part of the story is about the computer-programmer grandson of the latter and his infatuation with the tough-as-nails granddaughter of the former. part of it is about codes (both for war messages and for computer programs) and part of it is about war (both physical and digital). all of which makes it sound very dry when it's anything but.

Stephenson's typical doses of randomly-applied hilarity are out in full force here. he does an incredible job of painting the world through the individual voices of his characters...and quite often, those guys are thinking very odd things about very odd situations. the hefty book could have been trimmed by, say, 30% if it left out these random observations, sometimes comical, other times simply beautiful examples of what letters can do in the hands of a gifted wordsmith, but then we'd miss out on things like:

"a red dragonfly hovers above the backwater of the stream, its wings moving so fast that the eye sees not wings in movement but a probability distribution of where the wings might be, like electron orbitals: a quantum-mechanical effect that maybe explains why the insect can apparently teleport from one place to another, disappearing from one point and reappearing a couple of meters away, without seeming to pass through the space in between. there sure is a lot of bright stuff in the jungle. randy figures that, in the natural world, anything that is colored so brightly must be some kind of serious evolutionary badass."

no, i'm not recommending it to everybody. it's long and meandering and insanely technical in many places. but yes, i am gushing about it. it's lovely.

This is Neal Stephenson's most magnum of his opuses. "Cryptonomicon" is a thousand-plus page book that incorporates WWII code-breaking, South Pacific battles, mathematics, hidden treasure, modern-day computer hacking, and it still manages to throw in an adorable love story. Immensely readable, wildly fascinating, and hilariously strange, Stephenson writes like James Michener on a steady diet of speed, Froot Loops, and "The X-Files". Fans of Thomas Pynchon and Kurt Vonnegut will enjoy.

I am somewhat ambivalent about this novel. If "novel" is the right word. It's more like a treaty on a bunch of topics with a narrative woven through. If a novel it is, then it's one with a lot of exposition. Perhaps that's why it's so long. That, and the diggressions. Good heavens, the diggressions.

The story itself is not bad, and it's even gripping on occasion. It sometimes reminded me of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Gold Bug", what with the cryptography and hidden treasure. Only with Nazis instead of pirates. And, of course, much longer, ambitious, and sprawling. In fact, its own ambition and scope might be playing against it. The book is all over the place, and in some spots the author seems to be out of his depth.

Now, if you have any interest in mathematics, cryptography or history, you could certainly do much worse than read this book. You could, for example, watch that recent movie where Benedict Cumberbatch plays a Sheldon Cooper-esque version of Alan Turing. Cryptonomicon is much more respectful and knowledgeable about its subject matter, and it doesn't tend to underestimate its reader.

But there are also some things I didn't quite warm up to. First, it is glaringly obvious that Cryptonomicon was written in the days of the dot-com bubble, and it partakes on that techno-capitalistic optimism that private entrepreneurs will singlehandedly make the world a better place, and the best thing governments can do is to stay out of the way.

Also, this is a very nerdy book. I don't mean that in a bad way; after all, that's one of the main reasons I picked it up. I loved reading about hacking, Enigma machines and one-time pads. The unexpected downside, however, is that it showcases, in what seems to be an earnest, unselfconscious manner, some of the ugly parts of nerd culture as a white boys' club [1]. To the book's credit, at least gay characters (among them a fictionalized Alan Turing) are treated no differently than straight characters. No sophomoric jokes are cracked at their expense. And sophomoric this book can be when discussing sexual issues.

Female characters, on the other hand, are a different matter. You see, women are for sex [2]. Women are irrational. Women manipulate men. Women in this book exist to be someone's wife, or girlfriend, or ex-girlfriend, or prospective girlfriend. None of them shows any interest in math or IT, or has the required skills. Those are male pursuits.

This is not just subtext. It's pretty much spelled out. Randy Waterhouse, protagonist of the 1990s storyline, voices the idea that women are just not focused enough. But, you see, this is totally not a sexist remark, because he immediately adds that this alleged fact makes women superior to men, not inferior, as it allows them to develop their social skills rather than hunch in front of a computer. I am sure Randy's opinion is objective and fact-based. After all, we know he is totally unlike those intellectuals whose smug ignorance annoys him so much in an early chapter. Only those social science types would ever run their mouths about things they know nothing about, right, Randy? Right, Mr. Stephenson?

Seeing this is such a nerdy book, the pro-Christian, anti-atheist undercurrent that rears its head from time to time is somewhat surprising. A couple of background characters are even stated to be non-judgmental precisely because they are secretly devout Christians. Why secretly? Because apparently, in certain circles Christianity is not "politically correct" [3].

And there's the matter of the character that dies, yet later pops up still alive with no explanation. I find references online that this particular character shows up in other books and might be immortal. Still, it might have been a good idea to drop some hint rather than have the readers scratch their heads all the way.



[1] Cue angry, missing-the-point yelling: "What do you have against white boys?" The protestors might or might not include the author of the book, who either (a) thinks that the concept of "privileged white male" is supremely amusing, or (b) has a big chip on the shoulder about it.

[2] And the point of sex is male ejaculation. So, women are for male ejaculation. I wish I was making this up.

[3] Yes, this is a book that uses the words "politically correct" unironically.

Bene prieš dvidešimt metų skaitytą „Cryptonomicon“ jau labai seniai prisiekinėjau sau pasikartoti. Bet vis atidėdavau. Gal baidė plytos apimtis – vis tik virš 1000 puslapių (kita vertus, tai, jog prieš porą metų pasikartojau to paties rašytojo „Barokinį ciklą“, kuriame trys tokio pat storio plytos, tai tarsi ir paneigtų), o gal bijojau, kad įspūdis nebebus toks pats. Kaip ten bebūtų, atėjo laikas. Be to, susiradau pateisinamą priežastį, bet tegul ji lieka neįvardinta.
Romano veiksmas rutuliojasi dvejuose laiko sluoksniuose – Antrojo Pasaulinio karo metais ir pačioje XX amžiaus pabaigoje.
II PK metais sekame paskui genialų matematiką ir kriptoanalitiką Lawrence Waterhouse bei nuo morfijaus priklausomą jūrų pėstininką Bobby Shaftoe. Abu jie priklauso slaptam 2702 būriui – sąjungininkų grupei, kuri narplioja Ašies šalių komunikacijos kodus ir kartu organizuoja klaidinančias operacijas, kurių tikslas – nuslėpti nuo nacių ir jų šalininkų, kad šių šifrai nulaužti. Vėliau abu herojus aplinkybės nubloškia ir į Pietryčių Aziją.
XX amžiaus pabaigoje vieno iš tų herojų anūkas, kietas programavimo maniakas Randy Waterhouse sykiu su bičiuliais imasi projekto sukurti nepriklausomą duomenų prieglobstį Pietryčių Azijoje, kur sutinka Americą Shaftoe (patys spėkite, kieno anūkę). Galiausiai įvykiai pasisuka taip, kad Randy ir kompanija imasi karo metais japonų suslėptų aukso atsargų paieškų. Panašu, kad informacija apie auksą slypi Randy senelio išsaugotose, taip ir nenulaužtose šifruotėse.
Ir nors „Cryptonomicon“ laimėjo 2000-jų Locus Award kaip geriausias mokslinės fantastikos romanas (o be to – buvo nominuotas Hugo ir Arthur C. Clarke premijoms), bet čia įžvelgiu klastą. Mat tos fantastikos čia... kaip čia pasakius? Na, nėr. Nebent paminėsim lyg ir nemirtingą Enochą Rootą, kuris neretai šmėkščioja ir kituose Stephensono knygose, kad ir tame pačiame „Barokiniame cikle“ (kuriame, beje, sutinkame ir tolimus Waterhaouse bei Shaftoe protėvius). Bet tai čia toks labiau link fantasy požymių būtų?
Žodžiu, su žanru komplikuota. Gal protingiausia būtų knygą įvertinti kaip istorinio nuotykinio romano ir technotrilerio pavainikį. O gal tiesiog kaip gerą knygą. Arba ne – labai gerą knygą. Vieną iš geriausių, kurias esu skaitęs.
Tai mažiausiai šeši iš penkių galimų. Mažiausiai.