So . . . Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

[pegkerr]

I've heard that this book is excellent.

Um, how much do I have to read before it actually becomes interesting? I'm willing to keep going, but for how long?

Edited to add: It just occurred to me that I probably don't want to start such a long book the week before the next Harry Potter book comes out, so I'm putting it aside and will try again after I've read HPHBP.

Comments

[callunav.livejournal.com]

This is me, chortling.

A lot.

I can't answer that question. I never even tried Cryptonomicron. Having failed to like Snowcrash and failed to even start Diamond Age, I decided that Neal Stephenson enjoyment was something that happened to other people.

...with - for me - the single, shining, eminently rereadable, coarse, crude, engaging, funny, suspenseful, and hardly-SF-at-all exception of Zodiac, of which I just discovered I own two copies. If you lived closer, I'd lend you one.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

It may not be your book. It's my book because I care passionately about cryptography and the sainted Alan Turing and sprockets that are relatively prime. But if Stephenson's geekery is not your geekery, I can't think why you'd read it. It's an extended software-industry in-joke. Do not get me wrong, I love the book with a white-hot passion.

Did you like *Snow Crash*? If not, I wouldn't expect you to like Cryptonomicon.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Haven't read Snow Crash. This is the first Neal Stephenson book I've tried.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

One of the great pleasures of maturity is that you can stop reading a book any damn time you want to. Who cares whether you *should* like it?

::looks nervously at the pile next to her bed::

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

I really, really enjoyed _Snow Crash_, but _Cryptonomicon_ completely failed to get my attention.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I loved Snow Crash and pressed it upon all of my friends, some of whom are still speaking to me. Cryptomonicon so much failed to interest me that I'm not even sure I've spelled it right, much less tried to read it. One of the friends I infected with Snow Crash, however, is a Serious cryptographyy geek, and loves all things computational. Cryptowhatsis is his Perfect Book -- and he was kind enough not to insist that I read it *g*

[norabombay.livejournal.com]

Give it 100 pages. If after that it's not sucking you in? Than I wouldn't waste your time.

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

Heeheehee! That was almost exactly my reaction. :)

[satakieli.livejournal.com]

I have to concur with jonquil. Stephenson is enjoyable when his geek is your geek, and annoying when it isn't. Cryptonomicon sucked me in as soon as he met Turing, which doesn't make me particularly proud, because I was inordinately amused by the fact that a decent chunk of pages went by between Lawrence meeting this fellow he called "Al" and the first time that the name "Turing" appeared. I don't think I would have found it either terribly amusing or terribly enchanting if it hadn't been evident from the start to me that this was indeed Turing.

I haven't yet read any of the rest of his books because I'm afraid that his incessant tangents (which delighted me in Cryptonomicon, where his geek was my geek) would become very tedious indeed if I wasn't already interested in the tangent subject matter. The thought of wading through Cryptonomicon if I were just reading for the plot makes me shudder.

[enegim.livejournal.com]

I read it all the way through, asking exactly that question and never getting a satisfactory answer. Well, maybe not "never." ISTR there were a few interesting bits, just not enough to make it worthwhile for me. [Unlike Snow Crash, much of which I loved.] And I hated all the characters.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

And I hated all the characters.

Whereas my reaction was, "at last, a good and interesting novel about people like me." It does seem to boild down to whether his geeking is of interest to you or not. [ And now I want a "Your Geekage May Vary" icon. ]

[(Anonymous)]

Someone should make an icon for "Your geek is not my geek, but it is an OK geek." (cf http://everything2.com/index.pl?node=YKINMK)

[bethynyc.livejournal.com]

I liked it--go with the 100 pages. I don't think it's a great first Stephenson book though, I probably wouldn't have read his other stuff if I started wtih that. Snow Crash or The Diamond Age, which is my very favorite book by him, might be better first time reading him choices.

I also had a thing for cryptography, which might also make a difference.

Good luck!

[yoshimi.livejournal.com]

it was my first stephenson book, as well, and i found that, although it took me awhile to get fully sucked in, it was ultimately worth it.

[misia.livejournal.com]

It took a while to kick in for me as well, mostly because it isn't my geek-niche so it took a hundred pages or so before I understood enough of the various things that were going on that I could care about them. But I did truly enjoy the book after I got into it.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Well I love it, and I'm not that kind of geek at all, and I think it's spectacularly better than his earlier work. Though maybe I am more interested in WWII than most people.

I'd say, if you get as far as Bobby and the sushi and you're not enjoying it, stop.

[callunav.livejournal.com]

Okay, with all this discussion, now I may have to try it.

But I have to say, I'm terribly amused by the fact that the only Stephenson book I did like (so far, anyhow) is the one that no one else here has even mentioned.

About levels of geekery--I didn't like Snowcrash partly because I know too much and have too many opinions about linguistics, among other things. So for me, possibly /not/ knowing the field would be a plus.

After all, I don't know anything about water purification.

[wolfshaman.livejournal.com]

It is a cryptography and WW II book. If you don't like one or both then this book may not be for you.

[mayakda.livejournal.com]

It's been on my to-read pile forever, mainly because I hear that there's some stuff that happens in Manila. And I have a passing interest in WWII. But I haven't started it because it looks dull (is it?)

[madlori.livejournal.com]

I tried to read that too, Peg, on advice of a dear friend whose judgment I trust implicitly. I've always intended to give it another go. Glad I wasn't the only one who was having difficulties.

pssst! read "Cloud Atlas!"

[ironymaiden]

i'm reading it right now. i had a dear friend who was completely unable to slog through it, which kept me away for too long. Stephenson is a friend of a friend, and sometime i'm going to run into him, so i thought i should try.

i was hooked by Bobby's attempts at haiku on the first page :)
i also think Ultra and the windtalkers (dunno if they show up anywhere in the book) are the most fascinating bits of WWII history.

i'm 400+ pages in. if you don't like it at 100, you won't like it after that.

[heinous_bitca.livejournal.com]

I read Diamond Age and liked it, though it ended way too abruptly, which I'm given to understand happens A LOT in Stephenson's books.

I bought Snow Crash on a rec from a friend YEARS ago, but never read it. Husband read it and enjoyed it, however. I mean, how can you go wrong with a main character named Heero Protagonist, he says?

[trinker.livejournal.com]

I love Stephenson's work, but I must confess to being fonder of his earlier work than his recent work.

Cryptonomicon is definitely a "if it ain't your geekery" sort of thing. I much prefer Snowcrash and Diamond Age, and am especially fond of "Interface" which he wrote with a co-author as "Stephen Bury".

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Read his books for the ride, not for the end. He puts together beautiful paragraphs, and the asides are the best part of one of his novels.

B