Review of Cryptonomicon book
nr
latest cyberpunk book Cryptonomicon over at the Slashdot website.
Check it out.
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/06/23/139229&mode=thread
- NetRunner
tag dirt
nr <n...@no.sp.am> wrote:
> There's an review of Neil Stephenson's (Snow Crash, Diamond Age, etc)
> latest cyberpunk book Cryptonomicon over at the Slashdot website.
> Check it out.
oh it's good. it's really fucking good.
--
bit rot kid
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Share what you know. Learn what you don't.
Bill Weiss
Jesse Kulenski <je...@disinfo.net> wrote in message
news:37786da5....@news.frii.com...
> And thus spake tag dirt <tag...@my-deja.com> :
>
> >In article <7kuc32$f8s$1...@news.kth.se>,
> > nr <n...@no.sp.am> wrote:
> >> There's an review of Neil Stephenson's (Snow Crash, Diamond Age, etc)
> >> latest cyberpunk book Cryptonomicon over at the Slashdot website.
> >> Check it out.
> >
> >oh it's good. it's really fucking good.
>
> Stephenson actually makes a book, that about half of it is a
> Cryptology textbook, enjoyable to read.
>
> Besides, Enoch Root is one of the coolest characters I've come accross
> in a while.
It's also one of the thickest books I've read in a while. It's like 1000
pages! Not light reading.
--
Bill Weiss
eCode: bWeiss
see my eCard: http://BWeiss.ecode.com
Craig Brozefsky
> It's also one of the thickest books I've read in a while. It's like 1000
> pages! Not light reading.
Not a light book, but pretty light reading, which is not a negative
thing. Stephenson's text reads remarkably fast. He has a very nice
language that can move smoothly for pages upon pages.
So, is it me, or did the whole damn thing fall apart in the end.
Possibly the worse ending I've seen in a piece of fiction, but that
still leaves 900 pages of good reading. It appears that Stephenson
got bored or got to close to his deadline and kicked out the last few
chapters like a H.S. senior kicks our last quarter essays.
--
Craig Brozefsky <cr...@red-bean.com>
Free Scheme/Lisp Software http://www.red-bean.com/~craig
Less matter, more form! - Bruno Schulz
ignazz, I am truly korrupted by yore sinful tzourceware. -jb
Globalhead
In article <87wvwpk...@red-bean.com>, Craig Brozefsky
<cr...@red-bean.com> wrote:
>"Bill Weiss" <cult...@earthlink.net> writes:
>
>> It's also one of the thickest books I've read in a while. It's like 1000
>> pages! Not light reading.
>
>Not a light book, but pretty light reading, which is not a negative
>thing. Stephenson's text reads remarkably fast. He has a very nice
>language that can move smoothly for pages upon pages.
>
>So, is it me, or did the whole damn thing fall apart in the end.
>Possibly the worse ending I've seen in a piece of fiction, but that
>still leaves 900 pages of good reading. It appears that Stephenson
>got bored or got to close to his deadline and kicked out the last few
>chapters like a H.S. senior kicks our last quarter essays.
>
Agreed. I'm glad I'm not the only who read the novel, loved it, and was
disappointed by the particularly lame ending.
Larry Madill, Jr.
"You are all a Lost Generation."
-- Gertrude Stein in conversation.
ICQ Number: 37523426
gdc
(was it in this thread? i don't remember) ... i'd like to know how
good the math is. anyone? tia.
gdc.
Craig Brozefsky
> i seem to recall hearing something about a lot of math in the book?
> (was it in this thread? i don't remember) ... i'd like to know how
> good the math is. anyone? tia.
Whadya mean good? I didn't bother with any proofs but it all looked
correct to me, and I'm sure he had someone look over it. If you mean
like advance and ereet and stuff, well it's very well presented IMO,
and prolly on par with a university freshman level course.
There is a card based crypto system presented (one used by Enoch Root)
and that was reviewed by some respectable cryptographers.
I mean if you wanna learn real shit, there are books for that,
Applied Cryptography by Bruce Schneir is a good starter, and it's
bibliography will keep you busy for years.
gdc
almost no doubt that it would be correct (someone probably looked it
over before publication), so next in line is interesting. ...
gdc.
On 28 Jun 1999 01:23:30 -0700, Craig Brozefsky <cr...@red-bean.com>
wrote:
jakdaemon
> There is a card based crypto system presented (one used by Enoch Root)
> and that was reviewed by some respectable cryptographers.
DESIGNED by Bruce Schneir no less.
http://www.counterpane.com/solitaire.html
--
jakdaemon << data bomb kid
Stephen
[snip]
>So, is it me, or did the whole damn thing fall apart in the end.
>Possibly the worse ending I've seen in a piece of fiction, but that
>still leaves 900 pages of good reading. It appears that Stephenson
>got bored or got to close to his deadline and kicked out the last few
>chapters like a H.S. senior kicks our last quarter essays.
He's always had trouble with endings. The only decent ending I've
seen Stephenson do is with Snowcrash. That's of a sample size 3, btw,
I haven't read Zodiac. I thought the ending was abrupt with this book,
but still thought it was a bit better than the ending of The Diamond
Age. He fragments the story way too much towards the end of that
one.
Stephen
Globalhead
In article <_uUd3.1408$gr5.2...@feed.centuryinter.net>, "Stephen"
<swa...@spam.centuryinter.net> wrote:
The ending to The Diamond Age had me horribly dazed and confused. I was
hoping that Neal would do a sequel to The Diamond just to explain the
lunaslide
>
> "Bill Weiss" <cult...@earthlink.net> writes:
>
> > It's also one of the thickest books I've read in a while. It's like 1000
> > pages! Not light reading.
>
> Not a light book, but pretty light reading, which is not a negative
> thing. Stephenson's text reads remarkably fast. He has a very nice
> language that can move smoothly for pages upon pages.
>
> Possibly the worse ending I've seen in a piece of fiction, but that
> still leaves 900 pages of good reading. It appears that Stephenson
> got bored or got to close to his deadline and kicked out the last few
> chapters like a H.S. senior kicks our last quarter essays.
I am consoled about the end of the book because it is supposedly not the
end. NS plans to continue the story in another book or a series. When
I get some hard links on that, I'll post 'em.
I also think this book is some of the funniest shit I've ever read, and
definitely the best NS. Of course, I'm a geek, but I don't think that
limits the appeal. I would like to see Enoch Root and eriuditorium(sp?)
developed a lot further.
--
lunaslide * PGP key->pgpkeys.mit.edu port 11371
* * * * * *
And here we could talk about the Plato's Cave thing for a while -
the Veg-O-Matic of metaphors - it slices! it dices! * *
* * -Cryptonomicon, N. Stephenson
* * * * *
lunaslide
>
> g...@zzz.hotmail.com (gdc) writes:
>
> > i seem to recall hearing something about a lot of math in the book?
> > (was it in this thread? i don't remember) ... i'd like to know how
> > good the math is. anyone? tia.
>
> Whadya mean good? I didn't bother with any proofs but it all looked
> correct to me, and I'm sure he had someone look over it. If you mean
> like advance and ereet and stuff, well it's very well presented IMO,
> and prolly on par with a university freshman level course.
>
> and that was reviewed by some respectable cryptographers.
>
> Applied Cryptography by Bruce Schneir is a good starter, and it's
> bibliography will keep you busy for years.
Schnier *wrote* the solitaire encryption scheme and is credited at the
beginning of the book for it. As usual, NS has seriously done his
homework on the tech aspect of the book and it comes across really
well. He also dod a damn convincing job on the social and political
aspects of the story.
Craig Brozefsky
> > I mean if you wanna learn real shit, there are books for that,
> > Applied Cryptography by Bruce Schneir is a good starter, and it's
> > bibliography will keep you busy for years.
>
> Schnier *wrote* the solitaire encryption scheme and is credited at the
> beginning of the book for it.
Yah, but learning one scheme won't teach you much of anything, which
is what I thought the original poster was asking about.
> As usual, NS has seriously done his
> homework on the tech aspect of the book and it comes across really
> well. He also dod a damn convincing job on the social and political
> aspects of the story.
I think the geek identity building bullshit is laid on a bit heavy.
Most of the story set in the 90s reads like a Slashdot posting, and is
about as well thought out. The whole holocaust prevention scam seems
like a crude plot device to try and redeem and give a moral
correctness to a bunch of otherwise worthless, life sucking capitalist
techno feebs (you know, the things we call "geeks" around here). I
can even give it away here cause it's so transparent and worthless to
the story it's not a spoiler. Like I really care about the pain of
some fat bearedd rich fuck withhis paranoid-delusional friends and
their venture capital backed plans to wire the Philipines. The fact
that the character was not even a person, but a mirror in which all
the slashdotter wannabe geeks are supposed to identify themselves,
does not endear me towards the cereal crunching fucker anymore.
In other words, it's like the movie Hackers, with the geek demographic
pegged so that they identify with the characters, but without any of
the campiness that made Hackers an enjoyable movie.
I always sorta wanted Bobby Shaftoe to re-appear in the 90s and bite
the heads off of the techno-feebs like Ozzy does to bats. There was a
maniacal aspect to the Shaftoe parts that really appealed to me.
Thankfully it did not try to get any closer to Gravity's Rainbow,
because Stephenson, while an excellent writer, just cannot depict
complete insantiy and chaos the way Pynchon can, he is much to
self-conscious. But really, there is not much relation to Pynchon,
and although you're bound to see many people compare them, it's like
comparing Apples to PCs.
Oh, and Stephenson can't write about sex. There are no real sex
scenes in the book, and everything he says about the subject is akin
to the kind of conversation you have with your working pals. Sorta
like a school cafeteria hot dog, short, a little green, unfilling, and
mostly sawdust.
I reccomend that people check out some Jack Womack, and maybe wait for
Crypto to come out in paperback. "Let's Put the Future Behind Us" and
nearly anything else by him will rock your boat. His language is even
more beautiful that Stephenson (no slight to Neal intended, but Womack
is a god of language). Jack understands insanity.
Tom Knight
lunaslide wrote:
> Craig Brozefsky wrote:
> >
> > "Bill Weiss" <cult...@earthlink.net> writes:
> >
> > > It's also one of the thickest books I've read in a while. It's like 1000
> > > pages! Not light reading.
> >
> > Not a light book, but pretty light reading, which is not a negative
> > thing. Stephenson's text reads remarkably fast. He has a very nice
> > language that can move smoothly for pages upon pages.
> >
> > So, is it me, or did the whole damn thing fall apart in the end.
> > Possibly the worse ending I've seen in a piece of fiction, but that
> > still leaves 900 pages of good reading. It appears that Stephenson
> > got bored or got to close to his deadline and kicked out the last few
> > chapters like a H.S. senior kicks our last quarter essays.
>
> I am consoled about the end of the book because it is supposedly not the
> end. NS plans to continue the story in another book or a series. When
> I get some hard links on that, I'll post 'em.
>
> I also think this book is some of the funniest shit I've ever read, and
> definitely the best NS. Of course, I'm a geek, but I don't think that
> limits the appeal. I would like to see Enoch Root and eriuditorium(sp?)
> developed a lot further.
>
> The description of Randy's Tolkien-style metaphors made me laugh coffee through
> my nose. The strange thing is, the way Cryptonomicon ends, I have *no* idea
> where the rest of the series is going to go. The only loose end that I can
> spot is the hole-punched gold plates on the submarine.
lunaslide
>
> lunaslide <luna...@pacbell.net> writes:
>
> > > I mean if you wanna learn real shit, there are books for that,
> > > Applied Cryptography by Bruce Schneir is a good starter, and it's
> > > bibliography will keep you busy for years.
> >
> > Schnier *wrote* the solitaire encryption scheme and is credited at the
> > beginning of the book for it.
>
> Yah, but learning one scheme won't teach you much of anything, which
> is what I thought the original poster was asking about.
Well, that wasn't my point. Applied Cryptography is definitely the
place to start. I only mention that Schnier designed the solitaire
scheme in the context of the larger message that the tech in
Cryptonomicon is up to snuff.
> > As usual, NS has seriously done his
> > homework on the tech aspect of the book and it comes across really
> > well. He also dod a damn convincing job on the social and political
> > aspects of the story.
>
> I think the geek identity building bullshit is laid on a bit heavy.
> Most of the story set in the 90s reads like a Slashdot posting, and is
> about as well thought out. The whole holocaust prevention scam seems
> like a crude plot device to try and redeem and give a moral
> correctness to a bunch of otherwise worthless, life sucking capitalist
> techno feebs (you know, the things we call "geeks" around here). I
> can even give it away here cause it's so transparent and worthless to
> the story it's not a spoiler. Like I really care about the pain of
> some fat bearedd rich fuck withhis paranoid-delusional friends and
> their venture capital backed plans to wire the Philipines. The fact
> that the character was not even a person, but a mirror in which all
> the slashdotter wannabe geeks are supposed to identify themselves,
> does not endear me towards the cereal crunching fucker anymore.
<rm>
Whoa! Now I see more of your bias. That's cool, and to a point I agree
that the whole Silicon Valley venture capital, NDA, lets-get-rich geek
thing is out of hand in RL. I don't believe, however, that that
demonostrates poor quality in NS's plot development and story telling
ability and I think that the two parallel stories provide quite a nice
conterpoint to each other, whether you like the protagonists or not.