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2009 Reading #28: Cryptonomicon
Books 1-10.
Books 11-20.
21. Hmong and American: Stories of Transition to a Strange Land by Sue Murphy Mote.
22. Meet Me In the Moon Room by Ray Vukcevich.
23. Children of Rondo: Transcriptions of Rondo Oral History Interviews edited by Kimberly K. Zielinski.
24. The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry.
25. The Cowboy and His Elephant by Malcolm MacPherson.
26. Voices of Rondo: Oral Histories of Saint Paul's Historic Black Community, gathered and edited by Kate Cavett (Hand in Hand Productions).
27. Letters From Attica by Sam Melville.
28. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. I can't figure out what I think about this book, overall. There are several things I can say about it, but I am wishy-washy about the verdict. So I'll just break it down:
a. For the most part, the technical stuff didn't bother me, and in some cases I enjoyed it. This was more true when it was germane to the plot and not several pages on orthodontics for no apparent reason. I used the same approach for this that I use for all science fiction when it gets lecture-y: first I realize I've read an entire page without comprehending a word, then I go back and read extra carefully to see if I can make sense of it, and if that fails I just skim past it. If understanding the science is crucial to the plot, well, that's why I don't read much hard SF.
b. This is classic boy's adventure stuff, and I do mean boys. In some ways this is a very adolescent book--World War II, and gadgets, and the entire scientist-heroes-are-so-Golden-Age-it's-GEEK-HEROES-now thread. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I felt like parts of the book missed me, particularly the hacking stuff and the weird capitalism fetish it has. I liked the World War II stuff, though.
c. Like I said, boys. No female viewpoint characters, and the women are prizes more than anything, with clumsy symbolism attached; the Marine Bobby Shaftoe spends the entire book trying to get to his beloved Glory, and Randy Waterhouse pines for Bobby and Glory's granddaughter, America. Amy (for short) is supposed to be a kickass modern babe, but in the end she has to be rescued by Randy, of course. For the first half of the novel I wasn't bothered by this that much, because the women just weren't in the story much. But as the romantic subplots developed and Stephenson took the opportunity to insert some rather silly commentaries on relationships he really lost me.
d. One thing I liked about the book in the early going was that Stephenson seemed to be restraining his more gonzo impulses; it's not that Snow Crash wasn't fun, but I was hoping for something different. And this is different, but the gonzo crept back in. Stephenson can be funny--hell, he can be hilarious--but sometimes I feel like he does it at the expense of the overall work.
e. The characters in this book spent too much time being cameras, i.e. wandering around Stephenson's world showing us neat stuff and not doing that much in the way of being human. Bobby and Randy's romances are about the only character-driven stuff in the book; and that's OK, because this isn't a character-driven book. But aside from their nationalities and their capabilities, there wasn't a lot to distinguish these guys one from another.
f. There's a wistful/hopeful good-and-evil thread running through this book that, although I don't think it entirely came off, did get me thinking. Avi's zeal to see that Epiphyte(2) be a force for good, the HEAP (Holocaust Education and Avoidance Pod) stuff, Goto Dengo's story--it's the sort of optimistic thread that gets beaten down a lot in the genre, and in life. I appreciated that, even though it got a bit buried.
I guess, after all that, I have to say I liked it overall, because I read all 900+ pages and never considered stopping. So maybe I'll get around to the Baroque Cycle in another decade or so.
Books 11-20.
21. Hmong and American: Stories of Transition to a Strange Land by Sue Murphy Mote.
22. Meet Me In the Moon Room by Ray Vukcevich.
23. Children of Rondo: Transcriptions of Rondo Oral History Interviews edited by Kimberly K. Zielinski.
24. The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry.
25. The Cowboy and His Elephant by Malcolm MacPherson.
26. Voices of Rondo: Oral Histories of Saint Paul's Historic Black Community, gathered and edited by Kate Cavett (Hand in Hand Productions).
27. Letters From Attica by Sam Melville.
28. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. I can't figure out what I think about this book, overall. There are several things I can say about it, but I am wishy-washy about the verdict. So I'll just break it down:
a. For the most part, the technical stuff didn't bother me, and in some cases I enjoyed it. This was more true when it was germane to the plot and not several pages on orthodontics for no apparent reason. I used the same approach for this that I use for all science fiction when it gets lecture-y: first I realize I've read an entire page without comprehending a word, then I go back and read extra carefully to see if I can make sense of it, and if that fails I just skim past it. If understanding the science is crucial to the plot, well, that's why I don't read much hard SF.
b. This is classic boy's adventure stuff, and I do mean boys. In some ways this is a very adolescent book--World War II, and gadgets, and the entire scientist-heroes-are-so-Golden-Age-it's-GEEK-HEROES-now thread. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I felt like parts of the book missed me, particularly the hacking stuff and the weird capitalism fetish it has. I liked the World War II stuff, though.
c. Like I said, boys. No female viewpoint characters, and the women are prizes more than anything, with clumsy symbolism attached; the Marine Bobby Shaftoe spends the entire book trying to get to his beloved Glory, and Randy Waterhouse pines for Bobby and Glory's granddaughter, America. Amy (for short) is supposed to be a kickass modern babe, but in the end she has to be rescued by Randy, of course. For the first half of the novel I wasn't bothered by this that much, because the women just weren't in the story much. But as the romantic subplots developed and Stephenson took the opportunity to insert some rather silly commentaries on relationships he really lost me.
d. One thing I liked about the book in the early going was that Stephenson seemed to be restraining his more gonzo impulses; it's not that Snow Crash wasn't fun, but I was hoping for something different. And this is different, but the gonzo crept back in. Stephenson can be funny--hell, he can be hilarious--but sometimes I feel like he does it at the expense of the overall work.
e. The characters in this book spent too much time being cameras, i.e. wandering around Stephenson's world showing us neat stuff and not doing that much in the way of being human. Bobby and Randy's romances are about the only character-driven stuff in the book; and that's OK, because this isn't a character-driven book. But aside from their nationalities and their capabilities, there wasn't a lot to distinguish these guys one from another.
f. There's a wistful/hopeful good-and-evil thread running through this book that, although I don't think it entirely came off, did get me thinking. Avi's zeal to see that Epiphyte(2) be a force for good, the HEAP (Holocaust Education and Avoidance Pod) stuff, Goto Dengo's story--it's the sort of optimistic thread that gets beaten down a lot in the genre, and in life. I appreciated that, even though it got a bit buried.
I guess, after all that, I have to say I liked it overall, because I read all 900+ pages and never considered stopping. So maybe I'll get around to the Baroque Cycle in another decade or so.
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I think there's a good novel in there, buried under about 500 pages of self-indulgent crap. When I finished it, I felt like I'd been let out of prison.
No more Stephenson for me, thanks. I don't let an author do that to me twice.
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Danger, Will Robinson! The Baroque Cycle is like the same amount of goodness as Cryptonomicon in three times the volume.
It's worth giving Anathem a shot, though.
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I will say that in the Baroque Cycle there is a strong female POV character who makes her own destiny and is a delight to read about; she gets about as much POV time as each of the main male characters.
There are plenty of discourses on philosophy and capitalism though; the underlying theme is the conflict between the traditional forms of power (a landed aristocracy) and the new form of power emerging from the Enlightnement--banks and capitalism.
I'll probably read the third book sometime this year, and then I really will have to go back and read Cryptonomicon.
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I don't get the capitalism fixation at all, though.
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If you want more fun and more New England, there is always Zodiac, which I've read a bunch of times (not just because I used to live in some of the locations). It is about ecology and pollution.
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