Wednesday
May132009
Cryptonomicon Review
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 at 2:13PM
Before I received my Kindle, I had gotten about half way through reading a book called Cryptonomicon
, by Neal Stephenson. I had heard of this book several times from friends and from Leo Laporte on twit. I'm not much of a science fiction fan, so I was skeptical at first. I didn't really know what it would be about and at 1000+ pages it was more than a little daunting. I hadn't read a novel of that length in many years and I was a little concerned about how long it would take. I read the 2nd half on the Kindle and it went much faster than the first half, partly because of the Kindle and partly because the book got more interesting.
My concerns of this book were not immediately put to rest in that the first few sections felt a little disjointed and delt at least partially with the homosexual escapades of Alan Turing, though not in any detail. As I plodded along, the story became more interesting.
There are several main characters that are developed throughout the book and only in the end do the connections between them become visible. Some of the story is set in WWII and some in present day ( or at least the 1990's). It is most definetly written from a guy's perspective and with lots of geekiness thrown in. There are examples of computer code, half a page of random numbers here and there, explanations of how computer hacking is done, and lengthy discussions of cryptography and the math behind it. Stevenson has the gift of using a thousand words to say what I could in a hundred and at times it seems that a point is being drawn out at length for no reason at all.
In the end, I really liked the book. I like historical fiction anyway and tying in all this technology and nerdiness worked for me. I will probably read more books by the author, but not right away. I need some shorter books thrown in just to boost my sense of accomplishment. If you are interested in mathmatics, cryptography and/or computers. I recommend this book. If you start to lose focus on what is going on, just keep going and it will all come clear.
Oh, and the book is about a treasure hunt for Nazi gold, too. :)
, by Neal Stephenson. I had heard of this book several times from friends and from Leo Laporte on twit. I'm not much of a science fiction fan, so I was skeptical at first. I didn't really know what it would be about and at 1000+ pages it was more than a little daunting. I hadn't read a novel of that length in many years and I was a little concerned about how long it would take. I read the 2nd half on the Kindle and it went much faster than the first half, partly because of the Kindle and partly because the book got more interesting.My concerns of this book were not immediately put to rest in that the first few sections felt a little disjointed and delt at least partially with the homosexual escapades of Alan Turing, though not in any detail. As I plodded along, the story became more interesting.
There are several main characters that are developed throughout the book and only in the end do the connections between them become visible. Some of the story is set in WWII and some in present day ( or at least the 1990's). It is most definetly written from a guy's perspective and with lots of geekiness thrown in. There are examples of computer code, half a page of random numbers here and there, explanations of how computer hacking is done, and lengthy discussions of cryptography and the math behind it. Stevenson has the gift of using a thousand words to say what I could in a hundred and at times it seems that a point is being drawn out at length for no reason at all.
In the end, I really liked the book. I like historical fiction anyway and tying in all this technology and nerdiness worked for me. I will probably read more books by the author, but not right away. I need some shorter books thrown in just to boost my sense of accomplishment. If you are interested in mathmatics, cryptography and/or computers. I recommend this book. If you start to lose focus on what is going on, just keep going and it will all come clear.
Oh, and the book is about a treasure hunt for Nazi gold, too. :)
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