Arrgh! I don't remember a book that I both liked and didn't like this much!

Alright, a quick intro snipped from Amazon:

"Cryptonomicon zooms all over the world, careening conspiratorially back and forth between two time periods--World War II and the present. Our 1940s heroes are the brilliant mathematician Lawrence Waterhouse, cryptanalyst extraordinaire, and gung ho, morphine-addicted marine Bobby Shaftoe. They're part of Detachment 2702, an Allied group trying to break Axis communication codes while simultaneously preventing the enemy from figuring out that their codes have been broken. Their job boils down to layer upon layer of deception. Dr. Alan Turing is also a member of 2702, and he explains the unit's strange workings to Waterhouse. "When we want to sink a convoy, we send out an observation plane first.... Of course, to observe is not its real duty--we already know exactly where the convoy is. Its real duty is to be observed.... Then, when we come round and sink them, the Germans will not find it suspicious."

All of this secrecy resonates in the present-day story line, in which the grandchildren of the WWII heroes--inimitable programming geek Randy Waterhouse and the lovely and powerful Amy Shaftoe--team up to help create an offshore data haven in Southeast Asia and maybe uncover some gold once destined for Nazi coffers. To top off the paranoiac tone of the book, the mysterious Enoch Root, key member of Detachment 2702 and the Societas Eruditorum, pops up with an unbreakable encryption scheme left over from WWII to befuddle the 1990s protagonists with conspiratorial ties. "

Whew!

Stephenson takes 918 pages to spin his yarn and in the end I enjoyed most of the ride but I wondered what was the point. After 918 pages, that's not a good thing.

Pros:
1) It's a long book. If you like to settle down to a long book, this will do.
2) There is a strong pro-libertarian theme running throughout.
3) Some of his writing is quite good, entertaining, thoughtful, fun, thought provoking, well done.
4) He puts out some ideas that are really sharp. His discussion on Athena between Root and Randy got my little hamster wheels turning inside my head. He does this a few times.
5) Math. Not much but he uses actual math. And it fits with the story.
6) Cryptography. He uses actual cryptography and it also fits with the story.


Cons:
1) It's a freaking long book. If you like your books to be in the 200 - 300 page range, give this one a pass.
2) It just... ends. All the characters suddenly lose all the depth and charm Stephenson had imbued them with and it just stops. I think he should embarrassed that 900 pages weren't enough to end this in a satisfactory manner.
3) Was there a character not obsessed with sex? No? Right, right, I come from a Puritan background where I was beaten for having impure thoughts, but still, sex was a constant theme for just about every single character. It got really tiresome.
4) Potty mouths. The lot of them.
5) Sometimes his writing just sucked. Flat out bad. I wondered if he eschewed an editor.
6) Bobby Shaftoe's death. At the start of the scene where he dies, I thought "This would be the worst possible place to have him die after all the crap he went through" and, of course, he dies. Lamely.

So do I recommend this book? No, not really. It has some stellar moments, mired in dross. If you still want to read it, well, caveat lector.

I enjoyed reading cryptonomicon. It is frustrating and drags a lot in many places but it is quite brilliant in the good parts. Neal Stephenson has many interesting things to say on various subjects. He does a good job of explaining the math involved in many places. I also loved the conversation between Root and Randy in the prison regarding Athena and Ares.

The characters are all essentially one-dimensional, but i loved Enoch Root and Bobby Shaftoe. All the scenes with Bobby Shaftoe are hilarious.

So even though there are some quite brilliant parts in the book i really enjoyed, it also gets quite annoying in some places. It is way too long and in the end the story just seems to stop abruptly.

This book will appeal to people interested in World War II, cryptography, paranoia at the highest level, swash buckling adventures, the power of money, commerce, international communications networking; which probably covers 80% of the readers in the world.

Unlike Stephenson’s book called Snow Crash (Highly recommended) this story is one in the present time with deep links back to the 1940’s during World War II.

The main characters are Bobby Shaftoe- a grunt in WW II Marines; Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse – a cryptography and code geek at the highest level; Goto Dengo – a Japanese soldier who follows orders without question, any order; Avi – super super paranoid genius and business person: Rudy – who ends up working for the Nazi’s during WW II. Along with a large supporting cast of characters

The bulk of the story revolves around creating and breaking codes during WW II and then extends beyond that as future off spring of the main characters run into each other when developing a data crypt in the Philippines, while looking for some long ago buried gold (literally tons of it).

They intermingle and run into mostly bad guys along the way.

Stephenson fully develops each character and we are privy to what they are thinking during various situations. The evolution of computers is blended into the story line as well.

The various story arcs move along at a fast pace which is god as the book is over 1100 pages long.

Recommended. I have Stephensons ReaMd on my shelf to read and am looking forward to it based on the last two books I have read from this author.

UPDATE: Oh. I get it. For the child within us all, Stephenson provides a specific genre, beautifully rendered. But he buries it within a generous amount of smart and often hilarious wanking. What better way to tackle this genre than to bury it? Brilliant: a literary trick from 1999 with which to span, and end, the 20th Century. And his "Crypt" invention eerily foretells what we now call the "dark net" (which I know about only because I subscribe to Wired magazine. Honest.) So I've added a star to my original three-star review (I haven't been blindsided by an author in years), which follows:
At heart, this is a treasure story: gold is carefully hidden in the 1940s and fifty years later the search is on. And I like this genre: Clive Cussler's "Treasure" is among my favorite treasure/thrillers. So, yes, Stephenson steps up to the plate and does deliver a huge and often fascinating plot. There are also big ideas and thought-provoking discussions. For example, a character refuses to use the term "addict" and instead uses "morphine-seeking", then explains his reason: the noun utilization of "addict" obliterates an entire person. (And how often are we all guilty of these kinds of labels even if only in thought?) Stephenson is smart, and his opening leap from preset stops of a musical organ to the way computers might work is an interesting discussion. But Stephenson seems to want to strut his stuff, he wants to throw everything in. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but when he throws in the term "quantum physics" for no apparent reason (to me at least) I question his intentions: is he writing to entertain the reader, or just wanking? The author does use this term, then oddly feels the need to explain what the term means. So on the one hand he respects his readers by writing smart, big ideas, then for some reason needs to explain "wanking". Okay, so maybe in 1999 "wanking" wasn't very popular. (The word, that is.) I did like this book, but the wild tangents had me checking out of the story on occasion. And I'm going to read more from this author, as I already have a big, beautiful hardback of "Anathem" here at home on my "to read" shelf.

https://poseidons99.wordpress.com/201...

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!

zašto trojka? Očekivao sam zanimljiviju knjigu. Dijelovi iz prošlosti su zanimljivi, kriptografija je zanimljiva, ali priručnik od nekoliko stotina strana 'kako osnovati tvrtku u Manili i pri tome održati dobar tonus mišića a ne dehidrirati' me totalno ubio u pojam.

Эпоха у нас такая, что перегруз информации транслируется по всем каналам, и предпочитаемой литературной формой давно стали «цитаты Раневской» и демотиваторы, а предпочитаемой формой потребления движущихся картинок — анимированные гифы. Клипы Ю-Тьюба — это длинно, досматриваются до конца сильно не все, а статусы Фейсбука считаются «лонгридом», если в них больше одной строки, и оставляются «на потом». Последние дни как бы уже настали.
При всем при этом, как ни удивительно, все постепенно свыклись с мыслью, что телесериал — это просто длинный роман: иногда бульварный, не всегда, прямо скажем, гениальный, но неизменно с продолжением, публикуется в газетных подвалах долгих вечеров. Работы и мозговых усилий на просмотр даже самой презренной жанровой шняги тратится столько же, сколько на изучение классиков марксизма-ленинизма или толстых томов модернистов.
А тут вам другой интересный пример взаимопроникновения жанров: книга в формате телесериала (напомню, что такого бума их еще не было, когда она писалась). Сценарий этого сериала мог бы написать Пинчон, но не написал, поэтому приходится довольствоваться тем, что есть. Короткие эпизоды, не весьма тщательно проработанные характеры, киномонтаж, сюжетные арки, отступления и вставные новеллы, флэшбэки и флэш-форварды — все, как мы в последние годы привыкли. Сериальность — вообще богатый литературный жанр, и он, понятно, не одни ж там мексиканские мыльные оперы. В «Радуге», с которой «Криптономикон» часто сравнивают, Пинчон, видать, тоже что-то подобное делал — задолго до того, как это стало модно, — но этим, некоторыми приемами да некоторым родством натуры сходство этих романов и ограничивается.
Шедевр (как все говорят) Стивенсона — вполне увлекательная одномерная линейная развертка на занимательные темы. Тексты же вообще существуют в диапазоне от нуля измерений до энного их количества, но это тема для диссертации какого-нибудь литературного тополога: Бекетт, например, может быть представлен в виде точки, у Пинчона измерений явно четыре, ну и так далее… К огромному количеству книжной продукции такая метафора вообще неприменима, как мы знаем.
Анализировать или описывать «Криптономикон» без толку, мы и не будем — читать его вполне, конечно же, стоит, как стоит смотреть качественный телесериал. Жаль одного — что он пошел по пути экстенсивного накопления целей квеста / ядра заговора. Точка притяжения тут — не просто золото, а очень много золота. Это мило само по себе, но как-то банально.

Neal Stephenson's debut novel is an epoch-making masterpiece that hacks into the secret histories of nations and the private obsessions of men, decrypting with dazzling virtuosity the forces that shaped this century. It really was a great story, well-told. I'm glad I slogged through but I would really only recommend this book to people who like to know how things work, to the last detail. I mean, that's Neal Stephenson for you. The characters were great and fully developed. I found myself rooting for almost everybody, good guy or bad, and I suppose there's something to that as well. Just because someone is ostensibly on a side you are not on, doesn't mean they aren't on your side.

Though I'm giving this book four stars, I am a little disappointed in it. For the first time, Stephenson's wordiness got to me. At first, it is all fun and "character building" and enjoyable to read. But after working through 700 pages and still hitting long stretches about Randy's fascination with dust devils as a kid or how he had really bad wisdom teeth years earlier, I got a little frustrated. I had the feeling he was striving for length instead of letting the story dictate the number of pages.

I am also what I assume to be a rarity in that I read Anathem before Crytonomicon. I actually liked Anathem a lot more. This is partly because everything felt necessary. I actually didn't want it to end, whereas I was ready for Cryptonomicon's ending.

I don't mean to be too negative, because I believe this is a great book. The two WWII storylines were the highlight for me. Loved Lawrence and Bobby and pretty much everyone else from that era. Especially enjoyed the Admiral Yamamoto scene. I was less impressed by the main storyline set in the present. Simply didn't enjoy Randy and Avi and their group of geeks as much. I came around on Randy a bit, mainly due to his Captain Crunch habit, but Avi had no such saving grace. Still, it was a masterful blending of multiple storylines into a cohesive and enjoyable experience.

Δυσκολεύτηκα να βαθμολογήσω αυτό το βιβλίο, καθώς η ποιότητα ανεβοκατέβαινε σαν τρενάκι του λούναπάρκ. Πολλά κομμάτια του ήταν σκέτη ποίηση, και μάλιστα ποίηση για τα μαθηματικά, άλλα περιέγραφαν τους ανθρώπους και τις καταστάσεις με διορατικότητα και καυστικότητα. Άλλα πάλι ήταν αφόρητα κλισέ αποφθέγματα με ραστιστικό, σεξιστικό και σνομπ υπόβαθρο και υπεραπλουστευμένες θεωρίες. Το μεγαλύτερο μέρος ήταν απλά ένα ενδιαφέρον, αλλά μάλλον προβλέψιμο θρίλερ περιπέτειας. Το βαθμολόγησα κατά μέσο όρο και αξίζει να το διαβάσει κανείς ακόμη και μόνο για τις ιστορικές λεπτομέρειες. Επισήμανση: το βιβλίο το "άκουσα" ως audiobook όταν πήγαινα γυμναστήριο (γι' αυτό μου πήρε και σχεδόν δύο μήνες να το τελειώσω). Δεν ξέρω εάν το να το διαβάσει κάποιος με σταθερό ρυθμό θα προσέδιδε στην ανάγνωση καλύτερη συνέχεια και ολοκληρωμένη εμπειρία, ή εάν οι 1000+ σελίδες του θα καταντούσαν κουραστικές.

Rating this book was not a easy task. Parts of it were pure poetry, and poetry about mathematics at that, which I wouldn't have thought is easy to write, and poignant insights into the human condition. Other parts were pretty cring-worthy theatises of racisit, classist, sexist thinking, chock-full of cliches and over-simplified reasoning. About half was a solid, if occasionally humdrum, adventure-thriller, interesting and predictable. I gave it three stars on average and it's well worth a read. Note: I "heard" this as an audiobook every time I went to the jym. I cannot tell if reading it in a more regular way (for me it would take about a week) would add continuity to the reading experience, or if the 1000+ pages would get tiring.

reread this one again after rereading Baroque and as in the earlier review below, I liked it but not as much as the trilogy; mostly for the same reasons

(original review in 2008)
I read this in inverse chronological order of publication, so after The Baroque Cycle to which it shares ideas, and characters' families and I have to say that while engaging and with numerous remarkable moments, it is not as good as the Cycle. Maybe because despite having a math background I have very little interest in cryptography or hacking while the beginning of calculus and the first stabs at constructing a "Theory of Everything" in the System of the World are of much more interest to me.

Also not surprisingly considering that the Cycle has 3000 pages its characters are considerably more developed, considerably more "real" than the ones in Cryptonomicon.

Still a superb novel and highly recommended.