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Though I'm giving this book four stars, I am a little disappointed in it. For the first time, Stephenson's wordiness got to me. At first, it is all fun and "character building" and enjoyable to read. But after working through 700 pages and still hitting long stretches about Randy's fascination with dust devils as a kid or how he had really bad wisdom teeth years earlier, I got a little frustrated. I had the feeling he was striving for length instead of letting the story dictate the number of pag
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Awesome historical fiction, told in 2 separate timelines, interspersed with each other.
Full of action, in between the author's digression to, among others, scientific topics from math, cryptography, physics, computer, economics, to his scientific approach on beard, crunchiness of cereal, horniness, how to write a business plan, how to divide inheritance fairly, how to build a secret under-the-mountain gold crypt, and many other things. And he did not do it in a condescending way, sometimes borde ...more
Full of action, in between the author's digression to, among others, scientific topics from math, cryptography, physics, computer, economics, to his scientific approach on beard, crunchiness of cereal, horniness, how to write a business plan, how to divide inheritance fairly, how to build a secret under-the-mountain gold crypt, and many other things. And he did not do it in a condescending way, sometimes borde ...more
This really, really long book is worth the read! It is a somewhat historical account of the code breakers in WWII, the beginning of the computer age and yet at the same time it embraces the modern world. The juxtaposition of the two in Neal Stephenson's hands makes quite an enjoyable read.
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Have read this through twice (and its long). Great contemporary science fiction, but lots of other stuff mixed in as well. The writing and dialog is terrific, though, let's be honest, somewhat college male-ish.
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This appears to have been the first time I read this book. It was Stephenson's first foray into doorstop-sized books, and it worked fairly well. It was long and complex without being dull or hard to follow.
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Oct 06, 2009
Kiran
marked it as to-read
Dec 30, 2010
Erin
marked it as to-read
Jan 12, 2011
Scott
marked it as to-read
Dec 06, 2012
Erich Franz Linner-Guzmann
marked it as hibernating
Shelves:
ab-do,
computer,
cyberpunk,
drug,
fiktion,
asien,
nordamerika,
wissenschaft,
krieg,
fantasy
Feb 13, 2013
Oni
marked it as to-read
May 05, 2014
Patrick
marked it as to-read
