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Title: Boy does it suck!
Review: So I decided to buy and read this book because of some book reviews that compared Neal Stephenson, of Cryptonomicon fame, to Thomas Pynchon. This was a huge mistake because as far as I can tell there is no comparison, Stephenson can write and Pynchon can't, he just masterbates into a typewriter and manages to peddle the results to an obviously credulous sector of the publishing industry who are desperate to be included in the ranks of some group of modern literati or other. Non-linear narrative is fine, but quite frankly Willam S. Burroughs did it better in Naked Lunch, interesting ideas are fine, but quite frankly they don't carry a book unless there is some framework around them, something like a plot and some decent characterization. If you want something that will blow your mind a lot further than Pynchon will then get Naked Lunch, or Phillip K. Dick's , The Transmogrification of Timothy Archer, A Scanner Darkly or Radio Free Albemuth and avoid Pynchon.
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