dresese

Cryptonomicon

I just finished reading Neal Stephenson's book Cryptonomicon. I had heard so many good things about this book and Neal Stephenson in general, that I had to read it. I finished in a few days ago. It was a long book, around 800 to 900 pages of story, plus an appendix. The book was good, but it didn't quite live up to my expectations. While there are an uncountable number of very clever passages in the book, I felt the plot was a bit weak overall. There is was way too much going on, and at the end, many things never really got answered, and in fact the ending itself doesn't seem to follow from the rest of the plot. It's strange, it either needed to be edited down quite a bit, or given a hundred or so more pages.

Other books I've read recently:

• Baudolino by Umberto Eco: really wonderful, light-hearted tale by Eco. I love the historical sensibilities in this book. The last part of the book left me wondering what Eco was trying to accomplish here, but the ending was so clever that it more than made up for the previous strangeness.
• The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: First time reading it, it was unexpectedly funny and delightful.
• The Count of Monte Christo by Alexandre Dumas: Engaging, especially the first part of the novel. After that it gets a bit too long. The book is a bit too serious for my tastes, it has none of the playfulness of The Three Musketeers.
• Roma Eterna by Robert Silverberg (my second favorite sci-fi author). A great series of what-if short stories, the premise being that the Roman empire can never fade. Entertaining, occasionally thought provoking, but not his best work. Speaking of Silverberg, have I mentioned how incredibly bizarre and disturbing his book Kingdoms of the Wall is? I read it last year, and it freaked the hell out of me. Which is unusual for any book, let alone a Silverberg book. Good, though.