Hmmm... how to describe it? I was, in truth, disappointed. A mixture of Tom Clancy and a couple of issues of Linux Journal, with a little bit of Das Boot and Essential System Administration[1] thrown in as well. Is that fair? An awful lot of people seem to really like this book, and I think it would be fine'n'dandy as action-packed, thought-free vacation reading, but the characterizations are pretty thin, the coincidences too outlandish, the plot lacunae too great. Stephenson gets off some great passages now and again — I can certainly get down with his sticking-it-to-academia riffs — but they are rare fruit in this 900+ page jello salad. And after getting all the characters and plotlines to converge for the book's finale, Stephenson doesn't seem to know what to do with it all. The book peters out, leaving me with a whole lot of unanswered questions, many having to do with the implausibility of various characters repeatedly running into each other over a 45-year time span.
(Is it just me? I notice this a lot with modern fiction. Well, the small amount of modern fiction that I read. The author assembles the cast and themes and ideas together for the big finish, and apparently forgets what he was going to do. Some minor events occur, and the cast members wander off in random directions. The author looks around, frantically - See, reader? See how these minor events and random walks exemplify the deep themes of this story?! Well, they do! The End.)
Some things I did like about the book: the attention given to the southwest Pacific (this is probably the only bestselling novel that mentions calamansi); the descriptions of cryptographic techniques.
Anyway, I'd be curious to see what M.'s reaction to this book is - it strikes me very much as a guy book, specifically a young guy book. (Perhaps I am simply too old-at-heart to enjoy it properly.)
--
[1]A truly great, can't-put-it-down book.
Is it just me? I notice this a lot with modern fiction.
No. I've noticed this too. I don't think they forget what they were going to do, I think they never knew in the first place. But, they figured they'd work it out by the end of the novel -- and then they couldn't, and the deadline looms and the wolf (or editor) is at the door. So they just sort of wrap it up and there you are. Ta da! Once you get big enough, you can sell books despite this.
Essential System Administration
Ahhh, I have this book. It sits at my left hand, along with Linux in a Nutshell. There's a post-it note bookmarking a passage. Let's see what it could be...exporting file systems. That's right; Niles and I decided we would cross-mount each other's computers, since his has the CD burner. I hope that anecdote wasn't too spicy for this blog.
Speaking of disappointing endings, have you noticed that O'Reilly books tend to have short and inadequate indices?
Posted by: Angie Schultz on March 9, 2005 12:26 PM
...we would cross-mount each other's computersI'll show you my /etc/exports if you'll show me yours...
About the indices — yeah, there are few O'Reilly books that I check the index of rather than just flip through the table of contents or text itself. If the book's well laid out, that works ok, but sometimes I just have to put lots of sticky notes in to find what I need. sed & awk is a notable offender here.
Posted by: David Fleck on March 9, 2005 08:41 PM
I didn't much care for Cryptonomicon either ... the Renaissance occultists did Deep Symbolic Stuff well. Moderns are too self-conscious about it all.
Re: sysadmin, I predate you both by a good bit and was a developer rather than an admin, but am there with you in spirit ..... good to see the tradition continue.(smile)
UNIX Unleashed (lead author, 2nd, Internet & 3rd editions)
TCP/IP Blueprints (lead author)
Posted by: Robin Burk on March 13, 2005 04:42 PM
Stephenson has a "prequel" to Cryptinomicon out called Qucksilver, takes place in the 17th and 18th century and stars (among others) Ben Franklin. Haven't read it yet, but I might...
Posted by: Greeblie on March 19, 2005 08:46 PM