Goodness me, what an excellent book! It’s been on my recommended-by-chums list for a long time, but I only just got around to it.
Where to begin? Stephenson writes fantastically well although I imagine that some people might object to the level of geekery involved. He does colour passages so, so well, and he draws characters with extraordinary definition. Lawrence, Randy and Bobby are ciphers, but god damn they are well drawn. It’s a rare thing to laugh out loud at narrative, but in a good way, just at the sheer felicity of the thing. I’m not convinced that he knew how to finish the thing, but what a read!
This is the first novel I’ve read by Neal Stephenson, but the first thing I read by him was this Wired article about undersea cabling. Much more interesting than one would imagine.
I’ve got Snow Crash and The Diamond Age sitting here. Which one next?
Monstre, bring a BIG shovel when you dig into “Cryptonomicon.” It’s a big one and not a lot happens, but it happens fairly well. “Snowcrash” was a much more interesting book, though.
Well, I know it’s a big one – I’ve picked it up from a used bookstore already. Something like 1100+ pages. Not planning to dive into it right away… But, one of these days.
Snow Crash was great fun, although I thought the ending needed a little more… wrapup. But then I’ve heard that about Stephenson’s endings.
The way I hook most folks on Stephenson is to read them the first chapter of “Snow Crash” out loud. That said, I think I preferred “Diamond Age” overall - the plot seemed more interesting to me. They’re both entertaining, but “Zodiac” was pretty lame. If you can find a copy, “The Big U” (his first novel) is just as good as his sci-fi novels, and has a more solid ending. I just finished “Cryptonomicon” again last week, and noticed a few great references:
(1) Enoch Root’s description of his language abilities is a wink and a nod to some of the events in the Baroque Cycle.
(2) When Chester mails Randy the CDs from the Seattle band, the band is named Shekondar. This is also the name of a character from “The Big U”.
(3) The more obvious internal reference that I didn’t catch until my second time through – Waterhouse’s dinner guest in the very early parts of the book is G.E.B. Kivistik. What a name!
I actually rather enjoyed Zodiac. IMO, it had the most satisfying ending of any of the Stephenson books (in that it actually seemed to have an ending, rather than just… ending).
I love Cryptonomicon (and Snow Crash, and Baroque Cycle, which I am currently on my second time through, about to finish the middle book). Really, I think Stephenson’s a great writer, and reading him is a treat.
I’m all for spreading the knowledge that these books are all wonderful, and deserve wide readership.
But good Og almighty! Can we just make a Stephenson/Cryptonomicon/Baroque Cycle sticky thread?
I’ve read Zodiac and I enjoyed it at the time, although I can’t remember much of it now, something which perhaps attests to its disposability.
Snow Crash is a novel that I know will be a solid read when I get around to finishing it. I’m just terrible with finishing medium-to-long books so I don’t wish to put people off. It’s been so long that I will need to start again from the beginning.
The Diamond Age is also strong in most areas (so far) and is my most recent Stephenson read, although currently on pause (I’m into The Dice Man at the moment.)
So I guess that after TDM I’m back onto TDA, then restarting SC, as well as finishing Perdido Street Station at some point. Sigh…you’re terrible, Muriel.
As far as Cryptonomicon is concerned, I do believe I dipped into the first 20-30 pages or so a few years back but was somewhat indifferent. If I’m still keen on Stephenson after the others I may be tempted to check it out, my literary procrastination notwithstanding.
What OMD said.
What, if anything, does it say about folks who enjoy this book, that they feel moved to start a thread praisingit, but were unaware of quite recent threads on the same topic, and are unable or unwilling to search for same?
Is there any other book that has so many folks starting new threads just to gush?
" to show my post’s intention)