Book Review: Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
The story follows in parallel three storylines: a World War II cryptographer, a World War II marine and a modern tech entrepreneur/hacker who is the grandson of the cryptographer. In some ways, Stephenson is defining a new genre of fiction that specifically appeals to the modern technophile. I enjoyed the book, but I do have some complaints. First and foremost, the structural style of multiple parallel (if asynchronous) plotlines can be very effective, but it requires a certain resonance that this book does not achieve. Generally, I like this sort of approach to fall together at the end with a sort of keystone; each piece in its place. The stories build to some common climax where all are resolved simulaneously and requires some kind of insight that the other plotlines provide. Without giving too much away, I did not finish this book with that feeling. Each plotline was somewhat interesting, but in the end, none of them really went anywhere.
My second complaint was with the writing style. I got used to it after a while, but it is extremely Slashdot-pretentious. It plays to this sort of vague feeling of superiority that modern tech geeks want to feel is the reward for their knowledge. Even though by almost all measures, I fall into firmly into this demographic, I find this attitude extremely grating.
Two questions:
- Why does Stephenson call it “Finux” when he calls most other things by their real name?
- Are Stephenson’s other books worth the read? Are my complaints with this one deviations? I know he has a seriously devoted following.
January 16th, 2005 at 8:14 am
Neal’s homepage covers this one:
_Snow Crash_ is, certainly. I’m afraid he doesn’t get much better at writing endings, and I’m finding it hard just to finish the new Baroque Cycle books. My other recommendation’d be _Zodiac_.
January 16th, 2005 at 11:39 pm
Personally I enjoyed the Baroque Cycle better than his earlier works, but yeah his endings make you want to hunt him down and throttle him sometimes.
February 11th, 2005 at 1:25 pm
I prefered his earlier books, Snow Crash and The Diamond Age, especially the former. These are pure science fiction and so not weighed down by the necessity of squeezing the story to fit history. They are more inventive, and shorter too!