High-Tech Books

I liked the linking of how a human brain works and how a computer works. There has to be some hardware/software wired a birth to create the different personalities and to allow consciousness to develop. A funny exciting read.

I can easily agree with the many reviewers here, "excellent ideas," "brilliant opening," "later parts overblown," etc., but really it's almost irrelevant now. The book has sprinted past reasonable criticism and become a standard that other books are measured against. This is cyberpunk to many readers. In the same way that calling Tolkien "boring in places" is meaningless now, so too is calling Stephenson's characters "one dimensional parodies."

If you haven't read Snow Crash yet, go grab a copy and follow it up with the source material in The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Folks on the train will be much impressed with you.

I've read this book at least a dozen times. Quick whit, parallel storylines. It reads like a movie, or a graphic novel (as it was originally intended)

If you're into SciFi with a cyber twist, this is a must read

This is the only science fiction novel that I'd recommend to anyone. It stands on its creativity, literacy, and wicked humor. It's complex, engaging, and just plain cool. Perhaps it's not high art, but it's certainly highly entertaining.

Sentence construction is an art that extends beyond your high school English teacher's boundaries of correct or incorrect. It's necessary, at a basic level, to ensure that a book's readable, but it can be also used as a tool, among other devices, to enrich an author's message. Stephenson's sentences in Snow Crash are so clunky, top-heavy, and distracting that it gave me a headache. The book is further weighed down by poor humor and cheap jabs.

I tried hard to like Snow Crash. I thought that maybe if I can get beyond the writing style, I'd find myself immersed into a whole new world of ideas. But after a good bit of effort on my part, I had to give up. Consider this sentence from the opening chapter, which occurs during an action sequence involving high-speed driving:

"He knows that when he gets to the place on CSV-5 where the bottom corner of the billboard is obscured by the pseudo-Gothic stained-glass arches of the local Reverend Wayne's Pearly Gates franchise, it's time for him to get over into the right lanes where the retards and the bimbo boxes poke along, random, indecisive, looking at each passing franchise's driveway like they don't know if it's a threat or a promise."

Long sentences aren't inherently bad, this one's just awfully constructed. Structurally, the bulk of the sentence revolves around the "when...it's time" construction. The "when" leaves the reader anticipating the next clause which will, presumably, complete the thought. But while we're waiting for the completion, we're given an elaborate description of a view of just the corner of a billboard sign. The description is given merely to add a flare of style, since it contains no content that is meaningful to the reader. All of which would be fine if the description were more precise, but instead we're given a lengthy description of these arches and the unnecessarily long name of some irrelevant franchise. Had the sentence just ended there, it would merely have been a terrible sentence. Characteristic of Stephenson's writing, the sentence doesn't end there, elevating it from terrible to excruciating, as the next clause - intended to complete the "when..." construction - contains an even wordier description of the sort of drivers in the next lane. Not to mention the clumsy "it's time for him to get over into the next lane", which could easily be swapped for something more efficient, along the lines of maybe "he needs to switch lanes" - or just with anything that avoids a superfluous "it's", which immediately takes your mind out of the action by introducing the neutral and meaningless universal subject "it" smack in the middle of the sentence. Redundant with the previous clause, is another "where" construction, which is then used as an excuse to dive down a second whole rabbit hole of unnecessary description and detail. Needless to say, the poking and looking actions of passengers in the neighboring lane does a fine job of burying any muddled intentions that the sentence might have had under a thick layer of fresh concrete.

All of which, mind you, is simply a thought in the character's head (i.e., "He knows that when"), and is occurring during what's supposed to be a high-speed action sequence. And all of which begs the question, how can you possibly be emerged in the action as you slide down numerous tangential clauses, or how could care about the technical intention of the sentence (i.e., what he knows) when you're thrown wordy proper nouns, and how could you simultaneously care in the least about billboard signs and retards driving cars, all at the same time?

Labyrinthine sentences like these aren't speed bumps on the road, they're 6-inch round potholes and roadblocks. And Snow Crash is filled with them on every page. In them, Stephenson throws practically everything at the reader hoping he or she might bite onto something; you might bite onto pieces of it, but it's at the greater expense of losing everything else along with blocking any possibility of literary flow. No matter how hard I tried my mind was kept at an uncomfortable distance from the text as it stumbled over mindless clauses, unnecessary elaborations, and adjectives that were more distracting than descriptive. It all resulted in a gray unmemorable mess.

It's not that Stephenson has bad ideas, it's that he can't effectively get them out on paper. Purchasing an audio version of the book might help, so that someone else has to read the sentences, but it's doesn't make up for the fact that the book's dreadfully written.

I was annoyed by other stylistic techniques throughout the book as well. Curse words are sprinkled liberally throughout the narrative to pointless effect. They're used in place of more descriptive adjectives. Perhaps Stephenson used them to give the book a pulpy feel, but even good pulp consists of more than just four-letter words.

And lastly Stephenson's humor often borders more on cheap than witty. The example that sticks out the most in my mind is his slang term - "bimbo-boxes" - for minivans. I don't own a minivan, or particularly sympathize with those who do, it's just a very superficial brand of humor - a cheap-shot at modern society, not particularly well thought-out or clever. Certainly a timeless piece of literature - even if it's farcical - should have higher standards than calling minivan drivers bimbos merely in passing. There are bigger literary fish to fry.

This sort of humor pervades the whole book. Sometimes it serves a minor plot or thematic function, but more often it's just mentioned in passing, often replacing qualitative character- or world-building. If that's really what you're looking for then there are plenty liberal political/social commentary books, or go to a leftist protest, or check out a Michael Moore film. Just because it's in a sci-fi book doesn't automatically give this sort of humor more merit. Anyone can do it.

I'm sure that there are great ideas in the book - had I read beyond the first eighth of the book, I probably would've come across more of them - but it got to the point where I couldn't imagine how they'd justify the work of clawing through grammatical jungles under the guise of "sentences" and elongated portions of fluff.

I loved this book!! It was a great alternative to how the series ended! It was true to the characters. The problem is the copy of the book I received had about about 15 completely blank pages in the middle of the story. It was a huge disappointment. I can't believe Amazon would ship a book that was so poorly printed.

ditto what J. McCain "Jim McCain" (Shreveport, LA USA) said:

This book is fast paced and doesnt seem as though its over 400 pages in length. Be prepared to pull an all-nighter to read it you will not want to put it down once you start. The characterizations are dead on accurate. Our friends in Section 31 show up again and we see intrigue involving the Romulans.

First the relationship in the series should have been between Captain Archer and T'Pol since the first two seasons showed them getting closer. Trip and T'Pol never made a great couple. Second,when it comes to this book,you should just read the Historian's note section and the years during the chapters, for it totally doesn't follow canon and is WAY WRONG Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker III died in 2161 and thsi book happens right after the episode "Terra Prime" in 2155. The Enterprise series final "These Are The Voyages" was set 6 years later in the year 2161 during the founding of the United Federation of Planets. Therefore Trip was never dead when this book started and dies 6 years later in 2161. This book is the hoax, TRIP REALLY DID DIE and no book can change that since thsi book's plot takes place in 2155, its a hoax since Trip died in 2161. If you don't believe me, check startrek.com and the description for the last episode, "It says six years into the future...". This book therefore is the worst Star Trek Enterprise book ever along with the epilogue to teh novel "Last Full Measure". Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin are the worst Star Trek Enterprise authors ever and they shouldn't even be writing books none less getting them published since they totally fall out of canon set by the series and don't even follow the right timeline when it comes t oTrip's life, he never died in 2155 but died protecting Captain Archer in 2161.

"Star Trek Enterprise: The Good That Men Do" is the untold story of Starfleet engineer Charles "Trip" Tucker's first secret mission for Section 31, deep behind enemy lines, in the relatively unknown realm that is the Romulan Star Empire. This may be the first "Star Trek" novel I've encountered that deals substantially with the origins of the Earth-Romulan conflict. "Star Trek" scribes Andy Mangelis and Michael A. Martin have written their best "Star Trek" novel yet, replete with ample action, and considerable character development too from the likes of not only Tucker, but surprisingly too, Andorian Imperial Guardsman Shran. As "Star Trek" entertainment, it will be of interest not only to fans of "Star Trek Enterprise", but also "Star Trek Deep Space Nine". Much to my amazement, the authors adroitly handle potential plot spoilers that could have unexpected consequences for Vulcan's diplomatic relations with the other major powers in the soon-to-be-formed United Federation of Planets. Though theirs isn't great space opera science fiction, I am certain that Mangelis and Martin's novel will delight those who are avid fans of "Star Trek".

This book had a good premise and for the most part, good execution, but it read like fanfiction rather than a professional novel. Especially because of the inaccuricies such as T'Pol's emotional outbursts and the fact that Trip's older brother was married (to a woman) with at least one son (a fact that established in Enterprise's first season). If you can overlook these things, then it is a good read. If you can't ignore the glaring mistakes, then I'd say you should skip it.

I have nothing against the gay marriage thing, but if it hadn't been so far from canon that the light from canon will take a billion years to reach it, I wouldn't have said anything.

This book was truly a great book to read. I loved reading it, although it did take me about a month and a half. It reminded me of a bible given the heft of the paperback edition, and i couldn't store it in my coat for travel. Beyond that it was a great story, great character developement and did a superb job keeping all 3-5 storylines in-tact.

I really liked Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. Then recently someone recommended this book by saying "It's like Snow Crash, with more ADHD."

I was sold, and Cryptonomicon exceeded my expectations. There are numerous digressions that are really funny, partly because you find yourself entertained the whole way. Like a stand-up comic, Neal Stephenson will suddenly veer off into a side-anecdote and then slams you back in a way that's fun all by itself.

The biggest complaint to this book is that the ending is oddly-standard compared to the rest of the book. Some authors seem to start with a great problem and a great solution, which creates a great ending. Intead, similar to Orson Scott-Card's books, it feels like Neal Stephenson starts with a great premise, fully enjoys developing the story, then thinks "ok, I think that's enough. Hmmm... What's a great way to end the book from here?"

*shrug* I still give it 5 stars. I'll always prefer a great story with contrived ending over a contrived story with a great ending.

Here's an example and litmus test for whether or not you should buy this book... and it's a slight spoiler, but only of a digression, so I think you'll forgive me...

At one point, the book digresses for a few pages into a character's ability to solve scientific problems as a function of his sex drive, complete with graphs as if right out of a math textbook! Now, if you would be annoyed by such a digression or the geek-factor of it then you should stay away.

However, if you are intrigued, amused, or especially both, then you are probably a geek like me, and you should buy it. Now.

Took a while to get into but soon couldn't put it down. Loved this book. Had some very memorable and humorous scenes.

Cryptonomicon is one of those novels that wouldn't be out of place on a bookshelf next to classic epic stories like the Odyssey or the Iliad. Its grand, sweeping plots encompassing two time periods coupled with its realistic yet slightly superheroic characters create a unique experience that many of today's so-called "epics" lack. The hero journeys of the follow-orders-at-all-costs Bobby Shaftoe, the scary-brilliant Lawrence Waterhouse, and the forward-thinking entrepreneurs Avi and Randy twist and weave across the ages with precision and guile. Along the way, these heroes encounter other larger-than-life characters -- a conflicted Japanese soldier/digger, a pontificating immortal, General MacArthur -- further fleshing out the already three-dimensional story. And interspersed throughout everything is gold, glorious gold. Truly epic!

Is it for everyone, though? No. The sheer size of the novel alone will present a daunting challenge to even the hardiest of readers. Throw into the mix heavy doses of (sometimes subtle) sarcasm and pages-long ramblings on subjects seemingly unrelated to any aspect of the story, and some readers may find themselves throwing the book across the room. If you don't care about why men grow beards, or the extraction of some obscenely impacted wisdom teeth, or why Athena was really the goddess of technology, you may find yourself with some dented walls. But if you can stomach the following: "The uppers were so deep in his skull that the roots were twined around the parts of his brain responsible for perceiving the color blue (on one side) and being able to suspend one's disbelief in bad movies (on the other) and between these teeth and actual air, light and saliva lay many strata of skin, meat, cartilage, major nerve-cables, brain-feeding arteries, bulging caches of lymph nodes, girders and trusses of bone, rich marrow that was working just fine thank you, a few glands whose function were unsettlingly poorly understood, and many of the other things that made Randy Randy, all of these definitely falling into the category of sleeping dogs," you'll be just fine.

Is Cryptonomicon perfect? Sadly, no. At times it feels as if the plot is getting away from Stephenson and he has to kick it back into place. Whole huge periods of time pass in narration, not action. An entire trek into the jungle to find a mysterious location is recounted by Randy in an email. And, of course, as has been expressed in other reviews here, the ending comes on way too quick. But fortunately these incidents are few and far between and do not cause great distractions from the already sprawling plot. Even the ending, upon reflection, feels appropriate in the context of the entire novel.

All in all, it takes a quirky personality to love Cryptonomicon. But if you're one of these unique individuals, be prepared for a wild ride.

I loved this book.
It seems like most reviewers who enjoy Cryptonomicon are involved heavily in some type of geeky activity, so this review is for the other people out there, people like me, who ask only "Does it work?", not, "How does it work?"
This book, with all of its in-depth explanations for questions I never thought to ask, was incredibly engaging. It has an enormous plotline that spans several decades, yet does eventually tie in together. There are lots of "Aha!" moments, as well as several where you ask "How did he DO that?"
I loved it so much that I bought it for my husband, a computer geek, and my dad, definitely not a computer geek, for their father's day gifts. It is looong, but unforgettable. The best way to read this book is in big stretches, so carve out some time, put your feet up, and get ready to lose yourself in a place where eating cereal has a mathematical precision that will amaze you.
And if you don't like it, you can always use it to prop open doors.

Spook Country is in the same formula as Pattern Recognition. A young hip female protagonist is pulled into a job to find a shipping container for an unknown reason. The organization that is funding her is a secretive advertising agency with an over funded over bearing own who keeps showing up at improbable times. We never learn who the mysterious container belongs to, nor do we learn much about the other group competing for the container.

So Spook Country like Pattern Recognition features a number of mysterious organizations, a strange activity being done for a vague reason. These things are never really explained in the book, or if they are the explanation is not satisfying.

Gibson is a good writer so Spook Country is engrossing. It features his vivid descriptions of the objects and locations that help set a scene. In my opinion it has very little else to recommend it.

Since Pattern Recognition, Gibson is bringing his stories to the present time, leaving his previous choice of staging the plot in a nebulous future. But there are some strange things going on in the present; in Pattern Recognition, storie moved around the social network space - more precisely, a group of people the followed some posts of movie fragments. In this "Spook Country" the forward-looking feature is the geolocation, and the action moves around a group of artists that create their work aroun GPS-enabled devices. There are also lots of military types - the spooks from the title - and the story goes back and forth from the art to the war. I think that Gibson's main point is described somewhere in the book - technology advances through the army and the artists.
The starting point is intersting, but for the readers that enjoyed Pattern Recognition this new work lacks action and chemistry. The idea is indeed original and well crafted, enough to make you keep the interest until the end of the story. But don't expect a new Pattern Recognition.

I've read all of William Gibson's recent books and I think this one is the least enjoyable. The unique subcultures in most of his recent books have been engrossing but in comparison spook-country's art scene seems cobbled-together and tacked-on. Entirely too normal to be a Gibson book.

The good: This book has some brilliant characters which ultimately intertwine around a caper based climax at the end. The writing is clever and a joy to read, and paints a very realistic and plausible world, once you get past the first chapter, which was like another reviewer mentioned like wading through overly descriptive mud.
The reason it isn't perfect was that I felt the climax, which had been building nicely, didn't come to as much resolution as I would have liked. Of course there is enough material to do some sort of sequel, but that is up to Mr. Gibson.
All in all, worth the read, but not his best work.

The "follow the bouncing Character" is always enjoyable for me. Gibson links it so well that I can read a chapter or 3 late at night and enjoy every minute of reading and the anticipation of the next chapter!Interesting people, nice yarn; Gibson always come through for me!

Tried to read this, to no avail. Too many obscure passages and references, shifts of points of views, characters totally uninteresting.Too many concepts, too little sense. Avoid this, read "Dancers at the End of Time " by Moorcock or Anathem by Neal Stephenson instead

It's seldom that I choose NOT to finish a book. But this is one of those cases. I've read other books by Greg Bear, and enjoyed them (Darwin's Radio), but have found others (Darwin's Children) to be a stretch. Reading for me is a fun hobby, and shouldn't be like a school assignment that you just have to get through. I never finished "Darwin's Children" because it seemed like a sequel that was written for the money.

I plowed through about 100 pages of "City" and found myself looking forward to continuing as much as a would to a root canal. If I wanted to spend my time fighting my way through 'Chaos Theory' and the end of the universe, I'd read Steve Hawkings. But I found that I just couldn't spend (waste?) the time to try and understand all of the science behind Bear's theories.

Now, I've read much of Asimov, Zelazny, Delaney and some of the old masters like Stapledon (and didn't find 'First and Last Man) and so I can work my way through a book. But this just didn't seem to have the promise of a worthwhile story to make all that hard work necessary. So I'll just wait for "Quantico".

Zeb Kantrowitz

Having read Greg Bear's entire bibliography, I must say this book was a giant disappointment. From the guy who penned Eon, Eternity, Legacy, Forge of God and Slant (among other gems), and who occasionally has dipped into fantasy (Dinosaur Summer and the brilliant Strength of Stones), I was expecting more.

This story is incoherent, uninspired, and to be frank at least 50% too long. Greg Bear's attempt at fusing SF with Fantasy, which worked okay in Hegira, fails completely in this book. I'm tempted to say that this is more "Fantasy with a touch of science" - and that touch is pretty incomprehensible.

Every other Greg Bear book is worth reading (although Dead Lines wasn't exactly top notch). This one is, well, boring all the way through the end, and even the end is frustratingly chaotic and infuriating.

I think this may be the first of Bear's novels that I've read, but I've already added a few more to my To Read pile. This is a hugely ambitious book, and one that plugs into many of my personal obsessions. The first moment that one of the characters started talking about the "fictional encyclopedia" commissioned in the 1920s by an Argentinian named Borges, I knew that this was a story for me. (Though, interestingly, the story seems to take place in an alternate history in which Borges never wrote fiction.) The mentions later on about the "Last Redoubt" only sealed the deal.

The action in City at the End of Time alternates between modern day Seattle and the Kalpa, the titular city at the end of time. In Seattle we follow a teenage runaway and a busker, both of whom visit the end of time in their dreams, and both of whom are able to affect causality in the near term, and a vagrant who is possessed by a consciousness capable of shifting from one parallel worldline to another. In the Kalpa, we follow two young "ancient breeds" (genetically engineered humanoids who are approximations for what primordial humanity--i.e. us--might have been like), who play host to the two dreamers in modern day Seattle, and a "Keeper" involved in a last-ditch effort to stem the time of unreal Chaos that threatens to engulf the last remnants of the universe.

The far future sections of the novel are really far future, and it's here that the novel really starts to sing. The following are two paragraphs from just one of the many potted histories that are threaded through the book, hinting at the vast gulfs of time connecting now to then.

"As for the late Trillennium, in the shadow of the Chaos: broad legends describe the age of the Mass Wars. Bosonic Ashurs had returned from their mastery of the dark light-years, seeking ascendance over all... and were subdued by the mesonic Kanjurs, who in turn were defeated by the Devas--patterned from integral quarks. Devas were then forces to give way to the nootics. Nootic mater was hardly matter at all--more like a binding compact between space, fate, and two out of seven aspects of time.

The nootics--calling themselves Eidolons--gathered survivors from the last artificial galaxies and forced nearly all to convert. The last remnants of old matter were preserved and transported to a number of reliquaries with the longest continuous histories--including Earth."

This is a terrifically smart book, but in many places a very funny one as well. While not overlong, it is considerable dense in places, and having finished the book I tend to think that the journey might have been more enjoyable than the destination. But it's a wide-ranging, mind-expanding trip of a book, and something that science fiction needs more of. Recommended.

In the text, Bear hints at Barker and Kerouac as inspirations. I'm not sure about Kerouac, but the debt to some of Barker's work is pretty obvious: content, characters and style. If you like Barker's "Imajica", for example, you'll probably enjoy this. Add in a bit of SF, take away a bit of horror.

There are some obvious flaws: too many words, not enough happens. Bear tries a little too hard for the poetry, and often doesn't quite pull it off.

But he gets close enough, often enough, to make it all worth the money and time.

Great Book! It's great to follow the Enterprise crew post 'Nemesis'. Can't wait for the Destiny Series. This is a must read before the Destiny Trilogy.

Although I agree with the Naysayers in that the crew keeps changing to much and much of the 3 books in this triogy do spend to much time introducing new characters and filling in plot holes. Im so confused by it i can barely remeber the new names, the departed ones, or their stations. Despite all this you need to look at the story as a hole.
The borg are back and they keep getting more agressive and powerful, much like I always imagined they should be. The third book in the triogy, while lacking some of the action and revelations of "BEFORE DISHONOR" is a great read for star trek fans that crave borg books.
It ties together all previous borg books and brings in characters across the spectrum. It even offers more details on borg history and culture since "ENGINES of DESTINY".
The climax is the best. Once again just when you think the borg are out for the count, altough I never will, they come back stronger than before and set the stage for the next triogy, "STAR TREK DESTINY", which will explain not only the long awaited cannon history/origin of the borg but once again how they adapted once again.

When I first picked up the book, I thought it would be another boring "Borg" TNG episode. I've been pretty discouraged how the ST franchise has been wasting away, and since I have read almost every other book in the ST series, I have been waiting for a book to bring me back to Star Trek.

This is a good read, and if you have read some Star Trek books in the past, I would recommend it. It is certainly not where I would start reading any ST series, (I would recommend the Vanguard series, or New Frontier - they have less constraints and more imagination) but a worthy effort, and a book that you will carry around until you finish - which is what I want out of these books; I don't want to HAVE to finish the book - I just like to read and casually be entertained, and that is this book.

Better than I expected, if you read ST books, it's a good read, get it.

I have to be honest, I really thought this book was going to be crappier than a Pakled User Manual after the last few TNG books this year. The stories have just been fanciful and ridiculous.

Thankfully I found Star Trek had returned to it's roots. No Borg "supercubes" which absorb everything faster than a sponge soaks up water, or other silly plots. I mean, who really believes that beings even more powerful than the Q would really be influenced by a lowly flesh being who laughs?

But back to Greater than the Sum.

This time, in a mission to prevent the Borg from gaining advanced technology, the crew of the Enterprise encounter a new life form. It is very unique and interesting, and I admit I love stories in ST based around the premise of "strange new worlds and civilisations". In an initially pleasant turn of events, the Enterprise is reacquainted with Hugh, the Borg who was given a name and sent home. Following the Lore episode in the TNG tv series, Hugh has been very busy in establishing a society for drones who have left the Collective. He will also be pivital in defeating the Borg.

Overall, the mission is successful, but in the epilogue, it turns out to be all for nought. Why?

You'll have to buy the book to find out ;)

Overall the book was well written.

The Good:

- good storyline and imaginative new life forms.

- development of many characters.

- return to rational behaviour from Starfleet Command.

The Not So Good:

- Personal observation. Despite the Federation being an equal opportunity society, it seems the authors of Star Trek arent quite able to live up to this ideal.

Most white male authors are only able to write in non white characters as beautiful exotic females. Case in point- the new Security and Science officers. One of them even cries.

As a non white person, I notice this and find it quite sterotypical and annoying. Of course, if you are a white male reader, you'll probably love it. You should note though that in the US, white males are actually in the minority- only 35% of the population are white males. Hence white males writing in this way are quite likely to annoy or offend a member of the other 65%.

The Bad:

- None this time :)

There is much hating on the TNG relaunch paperbacks, mostly from Borg fatigue. But I feel this one gets right what Before Dishonor got wrong. It isn't just more rehashing, the Borg are truly evolving, while the crew theorizes about their past while encountering here to fore unknown life forms at the same time. While the new character is a bit much, I like her anyway, and the book does kind of stumble in the last few chapters, but the arrival of faces from the TV series is always welcome (wish there was more of that in the movies). If you're a Next Gen completist you can't skip this; it's way better than the last one and about on par with Resistance and Q&A. Make it so.

I bought this book (3rd edition) at a modest price from a really great Amazon vendor, Jennifer's Attic. However, it is by far the worst textbook that I have ever used in my life. Simply put, it is replete with errors, omissions and useless repetition. I'd bet a dozen glazed donuts that the four authors who compiled this book have not recently gone through the book's one hundred plus activities and projects to check for errors and omissions. It's a required text for a graduate Computer Forensics course at a state university where I'm pursuing a computer science certificate to add to my 4 year Industrial Technology degree. If they care here's some recommendations to the authors for the next revision; 1. Cut out all the useless repetition - sure you can repeat things but gee... 2. Don't go into such depth on so many different complex software tools, 3. Verify that your activities and projects actually work - validate each one of them to correct the numerous errors and resolve the many omissions.

Summary for anyone interested in Computer Forensics; if you have to buy this book as a required textbook - don't take the course unless its mandatory and you have a great deal of extra time to waste. To everyone else - who's simply looking for a book - run for your lives. There must be several other computer forensics books that are better than this one.

P.S. I have no affiliation with any textbook authors or publisher and can't say what's a good book on this subject - just that this one's bad.

The book is really usefull even if Computer Forensics is a new thing to me. It has a step by step guide to do Forensics from getting the evidence, preserving the evidence, until showing it in the court. The book even have the picture of how the room of investigator have to be. 2 program are included in the disc. One of the program is a software that is used widely. The other software is really helpful too understand what we have to do to gain information from the evidence.

Overall, this is a nice and perfect book for newbie in Computer Forensics field (It nice for advance people too) with 2 software that can be use daily.

This book represents the core of what is wrong with corporate America today. This book is packaged with a CD that has software on it used throughout the book. What they don't tell you anywhere is that you must register the software using a unique and one time only coupon in the cd pouch. Furthermore the software then expires in 120 days. To not mention this limitation that basically makes the book useless for resale is very deceitful on the part of the publisher and the company that supplied the software. Never have I seen such B.S. before as this when it comes for games that publishers play!!! THIS INFORMATION SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN BIG BOLD LETTERS -- YOU CANNOT RESELL THIS BOOK DUE TO THE ONE-TIME USE OF THE ENCLOSED CD SOFTWARE --

As a new examiner, I found this book somewhat useful, but I thought the book was edited horribly. It looks to me as though the publisher hired an English major to edit a Computer Forensics book... too bad...

If the authors read these reviews...
switch editors... maybe even publishers if it's possible...
switch to more mainstream tools for your examples...
re-edit before releasing a second edition

I found way too many problems with this text. I perform computer forensics investigations for a living, and would not recommend this book. There is too much focus on the DriveSpy program, and much of the information is repeated from chapter to chapter. This is an example of the reviewers not actually taking a look at the book. Your best bet is to purchase the book by Warren Kruse.

Snow Crash was brilliant, this story was pathetic and poorly put together. There is no point to the majority of what happens in this novel and the ramblings of the author could have easily been cut in half. Worse still, all the possibly interesting contents -- Hackworth's story, Dr. X, CryptNet -- weren't flushed out and instead ignored in this tale about nothing. A war happens at the end, unexplored and for no purpose to the plot. Read a different novel, as this one isn't worth your time. I want the time I spent on it back.

As is often the case within the science fiction genre, the novel relies too much upon the whiz-bang intricacies of a Victorian-retro future ruled by nanotechnology. Too often it veers into tangential details about this gizmo or that advancement which can be tiresome after a few hundred pages. Even worse, the conclusion of the novel features an abrupt, extreme shift in gears which seems forced, at best. However, despite all that, it retains Stephenson's manic charm, his innate ability to combine the wry and the cool into something more. There are dry spells, to be sure. Stephenson offsets them with moonlit martial arts duels, dashes of steampunk, swarm technology programs/orgies, and etc... It is a patchwork fantasy, and flawed. But it is still a great read, especially in snippets. Personally, I kept it in my bathroom for a few weeks. Worked well. Recommended for those who need some idle, interesting reading with more continutiy than the funny pages or Popular Mechanics or... yeah. Buy it and see! Or don't! }:-)

Diamond Age is a fascinating read although it loses steam half way through. Stephenson writes about the future with nano technology as if hes been there. The characters are well written (more believable than Snow Crash) and there is a lot of insight into differences between cultures (philes). Stephensons background in Geography and Physics is quite evident here. I would give it 4.5 stars and it would be even better if the plot was cleaned up a little as it starts to drag and become convoluted in the middle. Still worth the read.

I'd read Snow Crash about a year ago, and despite some problems with pacing and blatant Deux Ex Machina, I liked it enough to give Stephenson another go.

I gather Diamond Age is his second novel, and he certainly has improved in style over his original offering (Snow Crash.) This book consciously imitates Victorian (late 18th-century English) prose and dialogue, which can be awkward to the unsuspecting but is very much justified by the narrative framework.

The setting was intriguing, and quite-likely cutting-edge for when it was written. Nanotechnology plays a major role, and Stephenson does a good job of running with it to show the logical conclusions: a superficial utopia that is quite dark once one delves beneath the surface. To his credit, the technology isn't heavy-handed in this, and anyone with even the most basic scientific knowledge can follow (and appreciate) what's going on. I also have a soft-spot for Chinese history and culture, so he gets a few bonus points for including it as a setting subplot. Speaking of subplots, Diamond Age includes one that at first struck me as suspiciously similar to one of the subplots of Mona Lisa Overdrive (ie: an interactive book that helps a young girl cope with her surroundings) but I quickly found the similarities were superficial and Stephenson does go into new territory with his handling of it.

That said...

The last 75 pages of this book were a jumbled mess, with key plot points being introduced way too late, others (from earlier) completely forgotten, and overall left me with a feeling of "where the heck did THAT come from?!?" It honestly struck me as if 400 pages into it, he got tired of writing it and just wound things down as quickly as he could. Ironically, there's a fair amount of padding in that last section (notably a too-long sequence of a character at an interactive theatre.) Most of my complaints about the book come from the last 75 pages, but alas, I can't give specifics without breaking my personal reviewing oath of not divulging spoilers. Suffice to say that he again resorts to intervention from the Gods of Plot Convenience **a couple of times** in ways that are as unconvincing as they are unsatisfying.

That said, if you liked Snow Crash (or presumably any of his other works) you will probably like Diamond Age. It **is** necessary to keep your expectations in check, though. On a personal level, one of the aspects I really liked about Snow Crash was the wry narrative tone woven throughout, and that was very-much lacking throughout Diamond Age (I think I cracked a smile twice.) By all means, give it a go, but beware: the ending isn't so much a "let down" as a "plummet from 75 stories up."

The Diamond Age is an ambitious book, and one that kept me enthralled through about 350 of its 450 or so pages and then impatiently waiting for what turned out to be a highly improbable, fairly confusing, Hollywood style ending (where at all odds and in spite of massive casualties on all sides and the cataclysmic world-changing significance of the events they are caught up in, all of the main characters we're supposed to care about get the kind of familial reconciliations they want).

I didn't want to end up being disappointed by this book because I love Neal Stephenson's style and have enjoyed immensely every one of his other books -- I haven't gotten around to the few books he co-wrote with a relative, but they don't strike me as up my alley. The problem, it seems, with this book is the problem Stephenson confronts but admirably resolves in every one of his other books: it is the balance of story and background, of worldmaking and storytelling, or (in his most recent books) of history and speculative historical fiction. Here the balance between these seemed to oscillate back and forth until the weight of the world began to overwhelm my interest in the characters, and the trouble was that the world historical developments he was painting would be difficult to follow even for a contemporary.

When the story focuses on Nell and her primer it's exciting: like a futuristic version of Rousseau's Emile, where the problem is not merely to raise a child as independent in a world where we were increasingly dependent on others, but to raise a child capable of transcending and subverting a fully networked world in which interdependence is indispensable.

Where it gets into trouble is the effort to paint a shift from a "feed" based nanotechnological society (at least one or two technological revolutions beyond ours) to a "seed" based society (that I don't really understand at all even though he makes the political implications clear enough).

This is a good read, and a nice step forward in scope from Snow Crash -- but it gets a bit unwieldy and Stephenson doesn't to my mind quite pull it off. He does admirably in his next four books.

This is not a standalone review, just an addition to one you've already read. While it's a good book, it's certainly not a breakthrough concept like the publisher makes it out to be. There's been quite a few books about life in the digital age, and even a couple about crime in the digital world spilling over into the meat world. It's a pleasant read, certainly I was able to put it down when necessary, for instance, once Hereo's Season 2 showed up, I stopped reading and watched that. Good, but not great. A reader, but not a library addition unless you're a fan.

Way back when I was in seminary school, there was a person there who said you could never write a narrative in the second person. I wonder if someone rapped Charles Stross's knuckles then too. This novel is stubbornly written entirely in the second person--the first novel I have ever read written that way. Perhaps it was to imitate the vernacular of video games ("you have picked up a level 7 blunderbuss...") to give the reader a closer connection to the characters. At first it was extremely irritating, often requiring me as a reader to do some subliminal translating before proceeding. However, by the time I had reached the climax of the plot, I agreed that this story could not have been written any other way. It left me with an eagerness to pick up the book again and read it over on some later date.

There has been a few negative reviews of this book--mostly that it starts off at a strong pace, but fizzles at the end. I strongly disagree with that assessment. The denouement was more extended than most modern science fiction, but not nearly as winded as Stross's obvious role-model Gibson has been of late. This is a very well-paced story, with intriguing themes and endearing characters. It managed to do something to me that only David Brin has been capable of: make me wonder what the characters are up to when the book is closed.

I hate to criticise one of my favorite authors, but I have to agree with E. Lyons sentiments: "Function lost in form".

There are no technical challenges for me in this book. I'm an internet software engineer familiar with crypt keys and even the nascent quantum computing.
I'm British, so the scots brogue is clear, even cute.
Also I've been an avid RPG gamer (City of Heroes mostly).

However suppose you login your favorite RPG in which you have created three characters - but the game randomly selects one of your characters to play and gives no indication as to which one!
I guess you'd have to spend 10 minutes finding a clan mate to say "Hello bear", or "Hello brown Orc" or whatever. It would no longer be your favorite RPG I assure you.

I bought this book Oct 2007. I tried 3 times to get into the book but I just couldn't keep track of who I was meant to be. Maybe it's because I rarely read more than one chapter at a time, more often less than this.
Maybe because other books to hand offered no such obstacles to good reading.

Finally I've finished it. Whoop-de-doop.

Rather than rewrite the book in the 3rd person, I would suggest to the author to emulate the RPG's he seems so keen on: each page should have the chapter title, and each chapter title should include who the current "you" is.

Call me a lazy reader, but reading scifi is meant to be recreation.
This was a slog.

best book about the coming future and what physical and digital systems will look like and how we will interact with them
Read this book!!

The second person perspective is annoying and distracting at the best of times and completely ruins the narrative at others. It was an attempt to bring back the 1st and 2nd generations of role-playing video games when they game told you what you were doing, and it annoyed me then too. The most interesting chapter is the bit about the digital heist. The rest of the book seemed to go on and on about which character done it. The chapter character switches made it impossible for me to care one way or another about any of the characters. Skip this one. There is far better sci-fi satire/cyber-punk.

I first read Gibson's "Neuromancer" when it first came out (about 24 years ago) and really enjoyed it. I just finished reading it again, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it's weathered the intervening decades very well. This book created a genre by envisioning a wired world when, at the time, microcomputer's barely existed and ARPANET hadn't even started the move away from the Defense/Academic community to become the internet. It's truly amazing that such a book is still worthwhile today. It does have some minor problems with the characters and pacing, but those are insignificant compared to its historical significance. I rate it at a Very Good four stars out of five.

While I did enjoy the book, it wasn't anywhere the world's greatest novel that many seem to say it is. The plot was shallow, the characters were decent but also a little shallow. The world was an ok futuristic setting, defiantly fits as a cyberpunk genre.

The book is a little confusing, many of the aspects are never really explained. And the ending was a build to something great and then just fizzled out. But even with that being said I defiantly would recommend reading it because it's a ok novel.

Okay, now I understand what all the fuss is about. Gibson creates a vivd and engrossing world, entirely believable despite being so fantastic, and does so with a daring, sharp prose style that makes no apologies for bowling forward and leaving slow readers behind. He never holds you by the hand. Never indulges in overt descriptions and filling in all the blanks. It's just quick, cutting, laced with attitude, and on the edge of danger. This was fantastic stuff. Astonishing that this was his first novel. Thankfully I have another Gibson or two on my shelf; I'll certainly be reading them in the near future.

I think I am a pretty intelligent and well read guy. I am a fan of a variety of different types of SF, but this book simply didn't work for me. I've seen people who are obvious fans of this book lambaste the one-star reviewer in the comments section saying they must be semi-literate, inbred NASCAR fans if they didn't like this book. To you people I say, "Grow up." I'll stack my IQ up against yours any day.

Like many other one star reviews, I point to the heavy usage of unexplained jargon. More importantly, however, is that the book is so disjointed that it is difficult to determine precisely what is taking place at any given time. Is there a plot? I couldn't figure this out and after forcing myself to read half the book I decided that life was too short and set it aside.

Peter Hamilton is an SF writer who does a good job of creating futuristic technologies and presenting them in a way that the reader gets it and becomes immersed in the world he creates. I simply could not get into Gibson's world. I'm not sure I would want to.

I understand this book launched the Cyberpunk movement. Excuse me my ignorance, but I guess I don't really understand what Cyberpunk is. If this is it, then I'll happily steer clear. Give me a good John Varley book any day.

If you want to read an excellent SF story that shows a fantastical future with bizarre implications of powerful AI, then check out Varley's Steel Beach. I cannot recommend it enough.

I found this book to be horrendous, if not outright painful. Perhaps the cyberpunk genre isn't my bag, but considering that my trade currently is (and has been for almost a decade now) computer programming, it should warrant a greater appreciation for the technical aspects of the novel. Unfortunately, the ideas within Neuromancer were so far fetched that it just came off as cartoonish.

In my opinion, Gibson awkwardly complicates ideas/vocabulary, in an attempt to show off erudition in technology and history, but comes off as pseudointellectual and immature. The style offers little payoff (if any) when the definition of terms manifest in later chapters and distracts from an already weak premise. The detective elements offered a hint of something to come, but the incongruous jargon and unlikeable characters left much to be desired.

I have to admit it that Neuromancer is the first fictional book (out of hundreds) I wasn't able to see to the end. I read 174 pages out of 270, and threw in the towel. Granted, Gibson occasional offered descriptive imagery which many tout poetic. Despite this, it took everything I had just to finish chapter after trite chapter, finding that with each completed page I was farther and farther away from an enjoyable plot.