Obviously, I'm a fan — why else would I have read them all back to back?
(In fact, since I read Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon over
the summer, you may think that I've become a little obsessed.)I'm a former economics professor, and when I used to teach Money and Banking I incorporated something called the Goldsmith's Story, parts of which show up in this book. There's swashbuckling action mixed in with the history of science; important military battles mixed in with sex. And all of its done in Stephenson's expressive prose. Some might consider the prose a little too expressive — for that's how you come up with 2400 pages of trilogy. I also enjoy the way that the fictional characters (Daniel Waterhouse, Jack Shaftoe, Eliza the Duchess of Arachon-Qwghlm being the most notable) interact with the historical figures. Entirely by coincidence,
this spring I had read a biography
of Isaac Newton, so I could appreciate how
Newton's varied career is knitted into the trilogy.
Blogcritic Jim Carruthers has already posted
a review; like him, I feel that a problem that Stephenson has had with endings isn't so bad here. His suggestion of a spin-off movie called Redneck Ronin made me think of another idea. Half of the second book involves a daring theft of gold by a multi-ethnic band of criminals. Sounds like Ocean's 13 to me.
Article comments
1 - Jim Carruthers
I've been trying to digest the three books to write an overview, but one thing I've been pondering (pondering, mostly because to find an answer involves re-reading 4 huge volumes) but the gold at the heart of "Cryptomonicon" is the same gold from the Baroque Trilogy. Just a thought.
And I really appreciated the clue as to who Enoch Root really is (it's in the Bible, people!)
2 - Bruce Kratofil
You mean he's not a Unix admin?