I'm shocked by the critical acclaim this book received in the sci-fi category but I suppose even a turd can float. Two stars is really pushing it. Maybe a star for the number of laughs I got per 100 pages. This is the work of a technically inept egomaniac. He does have some technical background (he drops Unix hints and anagrams the name of a supposed deity who dies and then later comes back w/ no explanation??) However, it's not enough “savoir faire” for any of the content to make sense. It might sound dangerous to some but just plain stupid to computer geeks such as myself. It's obvious that this is not his first book by the way that the author is allowed to recklessly abandon the main plot (or any of the 4 sporadic narratives) for 70-100 page tangents. If he hired a first yr EE student to clarify some basic principles, snipped about 500 pages and got some ritalin, this book might be tolerable. Like many technical books or movies, I was utterly disappointed.

Why did I continue? First, it was a gift and I would feel ungrateful if I didn't give it a fair chance. Secondly, there are many alternating plots that the reader would naturally be led to believe that the lives of these men parallel each other in a different time and place. If you like mysteries, you can almost imagine how these people are related. This would have made the book entirely more interesting. But then nothing. I finished the book and whipped it across the room. Later, I skimmed the last half of this 900+ PAGE SLEEPER to see if there was an overlooked morsel of evidence that made all these separate lives connected which would have made all of the silent pain and suffering from that book worth something. Nothing. Exactly what I got from the book: nothing.

Eins der Bensten Bücher die ich kenne. Es erstaunt mich bei jedem lesen / hören aufs Neue, wieviele Querverbindungen es in dem Buch gibt. Alleine schon das Porzelanmuster "Lavender Rose" hat mehr Implikationen als man glauben möchte.

It's Stephenson. It's didactic. It's verbose. It's massive. It's 900 pages, at least 200 of which are pure research vomit, thinly disguised as dialogue. Yet for all this, very readable. And it appears Neal finally figured out how to end his huge, sprawling stories in a satisfactory, even elegant manner. (It took Stephen King all the way until The Dark Tower to manage it, so don't think I'm belittling the achievement.)

Four stars! I'm glad I read it, I learned a shit-ton of stuff I never thought I'd care about, and it was enormously entertaining. It didn't absolutely fire my imagination the way Snow Crash and The Diamond Age did, yet it's obviously the work of a writer who has matured since he wrote those books.

Now I need a nap.

Neil Stevenson, at the time of writing this novel, is a visionary who predicted end-to-end encryption, in which payment for housing and communal services from anywhere in the world is our routine. In 1999 - a year before the millennium, twelve years before the big date, twenty-three before "here and now". And it turned out to be much closer to reality than the Chiropractor's pizza car from Avalanche or the nanotechnology of the Diamond Age.

Every creator has one decade in which he creates the best of what he is potentially capable of, for Stevenson these are the nineties: "Avalanche", "Diamond Age", "Mercury", "Cryptonomicon" - every book is a masterpiece. Among other things, the novel has become one of the peaks of postmodernism, then this essentially feuilleton era is rolling down.

At the same time, an adventurous action movie with war, fights, treasure hunts, amorous adventures of heroes, and complex multi-layered multifaceted intellectual prose. Strikingly modern in terms of the Internet, information security, the culture of cancellation and the absurd hyper-tolerance of today's society.

Стать мостом
Через год, вместо того чтобы идти в банк и говорить с человеком, вы просто запустите эту программу из любого места в мире.
Нил Стивенсон поры написания этого романа провидец, предсказавший сквозное шифрование, в режиме которого оплата ЖКХ или покупка билетов в кино из любого места в мире наша обыденность. В 1999 - за год до миллениума, за двенадцать лет до биг-даты, за двадцать три до "здесь и сейчас". И это оказалось куда ближе к реальности, чем пиццамобиль Хиропрактика из "Лавины" или нанотехнологии "Алмазного века".

Вещь из лучшей поры писателя. Если верно, что у всякого творца выпадает одно десятилетие, в которое он создает лучшее из того, на что потенциально способен, то для Стивенсона это девяностые: "Лавина", "Алмазный век", "Ртуть", "Криптономикон" - всякая книга шедевр. Кроме прочего, роман стал одним из пиков постмодернизма, после которого ничего столь же сложного и одновременно увлекательного в жанровых рамках не создано. Дальше эта фельетонная по сути эпоха закатывается.

"Криптономикон" одновременно авантюрный боевик с войной, драками, поисками сокровищ, амурными похождениями героев, и сложная многослойная многоплановая интеллектуальная проза. Поразительно современная в том, что касается интернета, безопасности информации, культуры отмены и абсурдной сверхтолерантности сегодняшнего западного общества.

Действие романа разворачивается в двух временных пластах: Вторая Мировая и условно наши дни, в немыслимом количестве пространственных локаций от полюса до экватора. В фокусе внимания нечто тайное, загадочное, скрытое, и весьма ценное. Что-то, что необходимо найти самому, как можно лучше спрятав от противника. В материальном выражении и для наглядности это золото, серебро, антиквариат - да целые коробки, набитые деньгами. Но главный предмет интереса все-таки абстрактная информация, владеющий которой, как известно, владеет миром.

Герои вне Системы. Назвать их борцами с ней, я бы не рискнула, но им удивительным образом удается демонстрировать отсутствие вовлеченности в требующее хождения строем правое дело, под знамена которого мобилизованы. Мозаичная, фрагментарная структура повествования до конца не позволяет составить сколько-нибудь связной картины. Большинство вопросов так и остаются открытыми. Множество сюжетных линий не то, что обрываются, но уходят в никуда, истончаются до полного исчезновения. Что, странным образом, не вызывает у читателя отторжения: парабола радуги или моста, обеспечивающая максимум в центре и спад к периферии (интереса, внимания, желания досконально во всем разобраться).

Ключевым элементом повествования становится шифр "Понтифик", кроме прочих значений, имеющий буквальный перевод "строитель мостов". И таки да. Стивенсон строит мосты от всего ко всему, а параболическая структура книги заодно уж связывает ее с другим постмодернистским шедевром, "Радугой тяготения" Пинчона.. Два главных героя "Криптономикона": Уотерхаус и Бобби Шафто, словно бы персонификации двух сторон личности Слотропа - предельно стимулированный интеллект, используемый для решения изначально нерешаемых задач, и особое свойство попадать в безнадежные ситуации, из которых, тем не менее, удается выйти с положительным балансом.

Оба романа подвергают серьезной ревизии уровень отвращения, который готов воспринять читатель, далеко выходя за рамки стандартов девиантности. В обоих за жанровым микстом из военного, шпионского, любовного, этнического романов, необычайно высокий уровень наукоемкости. Оба демонстрируют поразительный интерес к прикладной и академической лингвистике. Семантика, структурные связи, проблемы языкознания во всех возможных вариантах. Стоит также упомянуть фигуру Вечного Жида, играющего важную роль в общей космогонии. У Пинчона это Пиг Бодин, у Стивенсона Енох Роот.

Резюмируя: крутейшая книга. Безумно интересная, невероятно динамичная, пронизана тонкой иронией - никогда не бывает смешно до уровня уахаха, но понимающая улыбка к концу чтения даже мимические мускулы лица наособицу закрепляет (это не для красного словца, сейчас вспомнила остров Йглм и щеки сами собой сложились в привычную конфигурацию, от которой немного даже больно, как с непривычки от физической нагрузки).

А теперь для имеющих уши есть аудиокнига, которой роскошное чтение Игоря Князева придает дополнительного (на случай, если кому не хватало) блеска и обаяния.

I stake the claim that this novel is the "Catch 22" of the new millennium. Smacking of Heller and borrowing somewhat from Pynchon, this novel also stakes new ground and weaves an engaging yet intricate plot. There are also many asides which encompass basic cryptographic theory, History and mechanics of modern finance and economics, Hacking methods including "Van Eck Phreaking" and EMP pulses, Music Theory, and speculations upon the future and impact information will have.

The novel weaves together 3 plots. 1 being the story of Bobby Shaftoe, a tough and guts marine during WWII who is assigned to be a security officer for the OSA, a forerunner of the CIA who handled US involvement with cryptography. The second plot is that of Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse, a nerdy un-socialized individual whose innate skill at mathematics and pattern recognition landed him a job as a cryptographer during WWII for the OSA and jointly with Brittain's MI6, their counterpart to the OSA. The third plot is of Randy Waterhouse, Lawrence's grandson who with his business partner are trying to construct a worldwide vault of information storage and exchange which if successful will land them with untold fortunes of "fuck you money."

The plot eventually weaves around the infamous missing "nazi gold" and how much decrypting enemy messages led to the outcome of the war.

The author's voice is very sardonic yet, mirthful. There is literally a laugh-out-loud passage on every page. The opening passage is of Bobby Shaftoe composing a haiku about a truck wheeling around a corner on two wheels just about to tip over as Bobby himself is holding on for dear life to said truck as it careens around a corner on two wheels, just about to tip over. Another humorous passage involves Randy who is signing a disclaimer for a very delicate tooth extraction which only one or two orthodontic surgeons in the country would touch: "They gave Randy a bunch of forms which he signed saying something to the effect that they could put Randy into a wood chipper for all they cared and he would have no legal recourse."

All in all, a ripping good read. Stephenson actually makes data storage and finance much more entertaining than any brain candy pot-boiler we could read. I highly recommend this novel.

DNF @ pg 300.

What a relief it is to have packed this one in!

(IDK why so few readers haven't given it 1*, but now I'm afraid to.)

I'm not super concerned with plot. I'm kinda of the belief for example that DFW basically almost never told a story. Infinite Jest is a bunch of snapshots on a timeline back and forth in which next to nothing happens: he creates expansive moments and unpacks how the characters feel, and the fascinating progression of these layers of detail or flowing explanations is what makes his teeny tiny drops of plot acceptable. It's rare that an author trades so much of one crucial element of fiction for hi-concept and gets away with it.

Gravity's Rainbow- what would you call that? Overplotted, maybe? Each page is dense with layers and layers of resonance of history and mythology and fact. The fun is in trying to stay afloat of the story with Pynchon shunting you off at every possible corner. It's rare that an author trades so much of one crucial element of fiction for hi-concept and gets away with it.

So what is Stephenson doing? He doesn't really have a plot, he doesn't really care if I understand his info-dumps, he's not really slowing moments down and unpacking them like DFW, nor is he creating layers of density like Pynchon. He's just listing shit and spewing facts and showing off. Any snotty teenager with too much time on his hands and a bunch of textbooks by his side could shit out this kind of prose.

I enjoyed the Diamond Age muchly, but the Diamond Age was filled with enthusiasm for a future technology, built an imaginary world and had a plot, and where it faltered- and it did so a lot- were the digressions. Cryptonomicon is a kind of all-digression attempt at showboating where the reader is disdained all over upon while Stephenson tries to outdo Heller and Pynchon.

But this is just what happens when a text doesn't resonate with you and you don't know why. A writer will have to break or adhere to whatever rules necessary in order to develop their authentic style, and that will please or displease whoever. Anyone who enjoyed this book could likely tell me all the above too, but they'd add "And that's why it's great!" This is what does my nut in about lengthy book review threads in general- if a text doesn't resonate with me, it isn't really mine or the writer's fault, it's just a mismatch. He and I can no more tell you why I wasn't grabbed than you could tell me why you were. But no one really did anything wrong. So let's read on :)

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.

Ich habe den Roman vor vielen Jahren bereits gelesen, ich kann mich erinnern, dass ich absolut begeistert war und den Roman auch in meiner „All Time Best List“ aufgenommen habe. Nachdem die Figuren (bzw. Vor- und Nachfahren) des Romans, insbesondere Waterhouse & Shaftoe, immer wieder in anderen Werken des Autors auftauchen (z.B. in der „Barock-Trilogie“ oder „Corvus“) wollte ich mir den Backstein-Ziegel (ca. 1200) Seiten nochmals vornehmen, ich habe mir das Buch von Zeit zu Zeit immer wieder zur Hand genommen und habe darin geschmökert und habe geschwelgt in der Welt, die Stephenson dermaßen detailliert gezeichnet hat.
Der Inhalt ist, nicht nur wegen des Umfangs, schwierig wiederzugeben, deshalb hier mal ganz kurz: Es gibt zwei Handlungsstränge, die einiges gemeinsam haben. Es geht um Datenverschlüsselung im Zweiten Weltkrieg (für die unter anderen die Figur Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse zuständig ist, zusammen mit realen historischen Persönlichkeiten wie z.B. Alan Turing) und um Datenverschlüsselung um die Jahrtausendwende (mit der wiederum Randy Waterhouse, Enkel von Lawrence zu tun hat).
In diesen beiden Zeitebenen mischen noch die Shaftoes mit. Im Zweiten Weltkrieg ist das Sergeant Bobby Shaftoe, der in einer geheimen Elite-Einheit alles Mögliche tut, um dem Feind - also den Deutschen und den Japanern - zu schaden. Im zweiten Handlungsstrang ist das Bobbys Sohn Douglas Shaftoe, der auf den Philippinen eine Firma unterhält, die auf dem Meeresgrund nach versunkenen Schätzen sucht und Bobbys Enkelin Amy, die ihre Brötchen mit Schiffstouren und Tauchen auf den Philippinen verdient und die dabei zufällig auf Randy Waterhouse trifft. Überhaupt: Gold ist für die Geschichte auch wichtig. Es gibt Gerüchte, dass die Japaner im 2. Weltkrieg auf einer Philippinen-Insel einen riesigen Goldschatz vergraben haben. Der spielt in beiden Handlungssträngen eine Rolle. Ich fand auch, dass die Philippinen als Handlungsort gut recherchiert war, offenbar ein wichtiger Ort für den Autor.
Die Stilsicherheit, mit der Stephenson Kolportage-Elemente mit informationstheoretischen Exkursen kombiniert, beschleunigt im Verlauf der Lektüre den Lesefluss zusehends, und man ist bald geneigt, all dies als packende Unterhaltung zu konsumieren. Da aber wird auf einmal, ziemlich genau in der Mitte des Buches, eine neue Erzählmelodie erkenbar. Die Familienbeziehungen und die Doppelpräsenz einzelner Charaktere, etwa des geheimnisvollen Enoch Root, der im Weltkrieg Soldat, in der Gegenwart Emissär eines ominösen Gelehrtenbundes ist, sind nämlich nicht die einzigen Verbindungen zwischen den Ebenen. Am Scharnierpunkt des Romans erklärt der amerikanische Jude Avi Halaby seinem Freund Randy die geschichtsphilosophische Überzeugung hinter dem "Krypta"-Projekt.
Gemeint ist damit, führt Avi aus, die Verhinderung von Völkermorden. Der bisherige "infotechnische Umgang" mit dem Holocaust sei nicht geeignet, künftigen Genoziden vorzubeugen. Fortan müsse man verhindern, dass Mächtige jeglicher Art je wieder ein Informationsgefälle zwischen sich und den Bedrohten schaffen, um letztere zu Objekten zu machen. Was Stephenson hier Avi sagen und denken lässt, bedeutet keineswegs Datenanarchismus. Es geht eher um den Versuch, politische Kategorien wie Minderheitenschutz oder Freiheit auf die Datensphäre zu übertragen.
Der Roman wird von vielen als zu kompliziert und als zu technisch abgewertet, insbesondre als Stephenson mathematische Beispiele oder Verschlüsselungstabellen zum besseren Verständnis in den Text einfließen lässt, diesen Leuten kann ich nur augenzwinkernd mit einer Stelle im Roman antworten in der Randy Waterhouse und ein Geisteswissenschaftler aneinandergeraten: Der Gelehrte faselt poststrukturalistischen Unsinn übers Internet, Randy reagiert gereizt, der Gelehrte schimpft ihn einen "Technokraten", Randys Replik: "Ich bin einfach einer, der runter in die Buchhandlung gegangen ist, sich einen Stapel Lehrbücher über TCP/IP, das Standard-Kommunikationsprotokoll des Internet, gekauft und sie gelesen hat. Dann habe ich mir einen Computer besorgt, was heutzutage jeder tun kann, habe einige Jahre damit herumgespielt, und jetzt weiß ich alles darüber. Macht mich das zum Technokraten? "
Diese Replik zeigt mit wenigen Worten, wie Stephensons Vorstellung von zeitgemäßer politischer Intelligenz aussieht. Wenn ein sensibles Spionagegerät eine kleine, in den Roman mit grandioser Präzision eingepasste Fetischisten-Novelle von einem Bildschirm abliest oder ein Hacker-Gegenangriff auf Regierungsbehörden, die einen Rechner beschlagnahmen wollen, furios geschildert wird, lautet die Botschaft: Niemand soll gezwungen werden, beispielsweise Konventionen und Syntax des interaktiven Betriebssystems UNIX zu lernen. Von dessen Existenz aber nichts zu wissen und sich dafür auch nicht zu interessieren könnte für Autoren wie für deren Leser ein Handicap sein - spätestens in politischen Auseinandersetzungen der nahen Zukunft, in denen Begriffe, wie Privatsphäre, Arbeitswelt, Rezession und Demokratie zur Sprache kommen werden.
In "Cryptonomicon" erzählt Stephenson davon, dass die Wurzeln der gegenwärtigen Informationstechnologien im Zweiten Weltkrieg zu suchen sind: "denn Computertechnologie ist Kriegstechnologie". Das zeige der Entwicklungsschub, der aus dem "Krypto Krieg zwischen den Deutschen und den Alliierten um die deutsche Verschlüsselungsmaschine "Enigma entstanden ist.
Als Fazit kann ich nur sagen, dass das Buch mit ihren über 1100 Seiten, Unterhaltung im besten Sinne ist. Egal, ob der Leser gerade Bobby Shaftoe in Nordafrika, oder wenn man Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse mit Leuten wie Alan Turing auf dem Campus einer US-amerikanischen Universität über Kryptografie diskuttierend, oder Randy Waterhouse in einer Vorstandssitzung seines Startups. begleitet: Es ist auf keiner Seite langweilig. Neal Stephenson serviert den umfassenden Plot mit viel Humor und Ironie. Und wenn mal Action angesagt ist, sind seine Helden nicht einfach strahlende Übermenschen, sondern Leute, die auch mal Angst haben und Dinge teilweise nur aus reinem Überlebenswillen tun.
Überhaupt sind die Charaktere sehr schön ausgearbeitet, mit Stärken und Schwächen wie im richtigen Leben. Das macht sie symphytisch und ihre Handlungen nachvollziehbar. Und dazu fand ich seine geistesgeschichtlichen, philosophischen Gedankengänge (s.o.) einleuchtend, augenöffnend und eindrücklich, dies alles ist, auch bei der wiederholten Lektüre, ein Meisterwerk…!

I had been warned about this book. It's big. And complicated. And bizarre. And it if it was my first Neal Stephenson book I don't think I could have done it. Please don't start with this book. Go get Snow Crash or The Diamond Age: or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer. Start there. Ease yourself in.

Because this book really is a mindfuck. It skips between various times with no warning. Once you get the hang of it, and start learning the characters, it gets easier. Not easy, easier. As can be gathered from the title cryptography plays a very important role in this book. And it gets detailed. Not so much with modern cryptography, which while mentioned plays a backseat to the codes and processes of WWII, but that doesn't make them any simpler.

The mathematics is deep and requires a great deal of concentration for those of use not mathematically inclined, or many years out of study. And bizarre. There are no punches pulled here. It is part graphic, gory, sexual, racist (characters, not author). It is mostly set during WWII, and the ugly thoughts and ideas of those times shows through. Atrocities abounded on all sides.

This book is hard reading. Multiple times I put it down, unsure if I could finish it. But the threads started tying together, sense started to shine through, and I kept on going. I don't know if I could recommend this to anyone, as I said at the start you'd really have to already have an idea if you like Stephenson's books first. But if you do, just give it a try.

This was my first Stephenson book. Crytponomicon is quite long, my printing is 800 (somewhat large) pages, which is a quite high aim, esp. considerd the technical themes (burdens) of the book. Unfortunately Stephenson fails terribly.

Being a cryptonerd and in general more technically interested then average, I really looked forward to reading it when I got it as a gift. However the technical side of this book is rather bland, bad researched, and does little for the story other than perhaps sound impressive, but mostly feeling nerd-pompous or out of place. The word plays are especially horrible, at about the same level as the weekly (translated) Donald Duck comics we get here in Norway. The book is riddled with very thinly veiled references to Hacker Culture. There is also a painfully stupid parody of Welsh (Qwghlmnian), which could easily have been rivaled by a 12-year old's school paper graded D. I have never ever seen worse in a published work.

The book does not really give anything on the other areas. The main characters (only men) are both unlikable and unbelievable stereotypes. Other hard critics have given good write-ups. Historical characters are not portrayed in a believable way, and are often woefully inaccurate, and not at all within feasible fictional bounds. The book is too long and goes on and on about tangents and tasteless descriptions of about everything the characters do, which turns out to be not that much considering the length of the book. The ending is possibly its weakest point.

This is one of the poorest books I have ever read. A good editor might have salvaged it by cutting about 500 pages, mostly with the technical stuff, which did the book no favours. The information-haven theme could have been explored much more, and was the only really interesting theme of the book. Unfortunatly this wasn't very much featured. This book is mostly about obnoxious shallow nerds going about their business. I did finish it, but only because it was a gift, and I had heard much great stuff about Stephenson, but there was none of it in this book.

Would not recommend to anyone.

Way too much math. I'm sure it's brilliant, but I couldn't hack it.

Reading this book was a lot like riding in a car that steadily picks up speed and then stalls out. I wanted to like it a great deal more than I ended up doing.

I would be trucking along, really getting into it, starting to get eager about turning the page and finding out what was going to happen next, and then...some reference to "hairy-legged academic feminists" or the "Ejaculation Control Commission" or "those things women always say to manipulate men" and my enjoyment would come to a screeching halt.

Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the recent changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook