Review: Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

Hacking, crypto, humor, war, espionage, sex, marines… This book has it all. And then some. And then a bit more. And then even more… And even more… And so on, for about 1100 pages. This could have been an incredible book if it had a better editor. There are some hilarious parts, some brilliant parts, and a few great characters. There are sentences and paragraphs that have been lovingly, meticulous crafted. And then there’s all this other stuff. Hundreds of pages of it. Just nonsensical, unimportant filler. I constantly found myself tuning in and out. It’s still worth reading for the hidden gems, but it’s not a compelling work as a whole.

A few of those hidden gems:

“Ask a Soviet engineer to design a pair of shoes and he’ll come up with something that looks like the boxes that the shoes came in; ask him to make something that will massacre Germans, and he turns into Thomas Fucking Edison.”

“The “sir, yes sir” business, which would probably sound like horseshit to any civilian in his right mind, makes sense to Shaftoe and to the officers in a deep and important way. …he has come to understand the [military] culture for what it is: a system of etiquette within which it becomes possible for groups of men to live together for years, travel to the ends of the earth, and do all kinds of incredibly weird shit without killing each other or completely losing their minds in the process.”

“The implied responsibility placed upon the officer’s shoulders by the subordinate’s unhesitating willingness to follow orders is a withering burden to any officer with half a brain, and Shaftoe has more than once seen seasoned noncoms reduce green lieutenants to quivering blobs simply by standing before them and agreeing, cheerfully, to carry out their orders.”

“Chester nods all the way through this, but does not rudely interrupt Randy as a younger nerd would. Your younger nerd takes offense quickly when someone near him begins to utter declarative sentences, because he reads into it an assertion that he, the nerd, does not already know the information being imparted. But your older nerd has more self confidence, and besides, understands that frequently people need to think out loud. And highly advanced nerds will furthermore understand that uttering declarative sentences whose contents are already known to all present is part of the social process of making conversation and therefore should not be construed as aggression under any circumstances.”

“We make our way in the world by knowing that two plus two equals four, and sticking to our guns in a way that is kind of nerdy and that maybe hurts people’s feelings sometimes. I’m sorry.”
“Hurts whose feelings? People who think that two plus two equals five?”
“People who put a higher priority on social graces than on having every statement uttered in a conversation be literally true.”

Rating: 3 stars