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As I have mentioned in my reviews of his earlier books, Neal seems to have a problem where he is tempted to use advanced technology as a sort of Deus Ex Machina to rescue the plot at the last minute. His first book The Diamond Age was set almost 100 years into the future and so this temptation was too strong for him to ignore.
His next book Snow Crash was set 50 years into the future, and so the problem wasn't quite as bad.
His third work, Zodiac, was set right now and so the problem was almost eliminated.
Finally, his fourth book, Cryptonomicon is set half now and half in World War II. There is no use of made up technologies at all. There is a big use of technology at the end of the book, but it is a well known tech that everyone has available. I shan't reveal any more.
Of course looking at this procession indicates that his next book will be a historical novel, set around the beginning of the 20th century. We will have to see.
But getting back to the point. With the advanced-technology-coming-to-the-rescue problem out of the way, there is no longer any problem at all with the book. And this one still has all the great writing, plot and characterization of the other novels. One can make some complaints, like "Why on earth did that brilliant mathematician fall in love with such a stupid woman?" but that is hardly something that is wrong with the book, rather something that is wrong with people, and the book has just reflected that.
After all, if everyone was sensible then fiction would be very boring indeed.
Despite the lovestruck mathematician I really liked this book. A fair bit of that is just quantity. I'm not a subscriber to the view that "less is more" and in fact usually figure that "more is more". Well with Cryptonomicon you get more. More detail research into the cable laying and telecomunication industry. (OK, Neal did the research while writing articles for Wired magazine, but research is research.) More detailled research into cryptography, more information on WW2 code breakers. More plot, with two entire novels packed into one. And finally more writing, with such a long book you can just keep reading for days.
Probably his best so far.
Order Cryptonomicon
Like Cryptonomicon, Zodiac is not set in the future and so escapes the problem encountered in his earlier books of technology coming in at the last moment and saving the day like a Greek God reaching down from the sky. Technology is a big feature of course but as it is all present day stuff, the magic saviour aspect could not arise.
Having said that, Zodiac is not as good as Cryptonomicon. It is shorter; there is less hard engineering in it; The author presumes that the reader does not now what a pH number means. And the heros are a bunch of tree-hugging hippies. But it was still good. Order Zodiac
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