read Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

Well, technically, if you like Stephenson, this is probably a good read. It’s unnecessarily gratutitous in it’s rambling on subjects that are more there to show how clever he is than to really progress the story, but there is a certain virtuosity in the plot lines that I can appreciate. He does his research, he takes pains over the interrelationships between the multiple plot lines, and the story does tie up nicely in the end.

I thought both Snow Crash and The Diamond Age were both more enjoyable books, but I’m glad I did go ahead an stick with this one until the end.

So this has been a slow read. I really like Stephenson’s work, but this particular tome isn’t nearly as enjoyable. It’s a good book, I can appreciate his research and his ideas, but there’s just TOO MUCH irrelevant stuff. His tone seems to give the same weight to every event and description as if every bit of clever metaphor he puts in is necessary for understanding the story….

Oh well, I’ll finish it in the next week and just put a stake through it’s heart.

This is a much more ambitious attempt by Stephenson than either Diamond Age or Snow Crash, but it seemed like a good fiction pair/follow up to Information: The New Language of Science. I’m barely into it though, so we’ll see how it goes.