Neal Stephenson, the great pretender

[pporteous at worley.co.nz]

well, I finished Cryptonimicon a month ago, and found it pretty up and down
(more down than up). some interesting ideas regarding the mapping of
code/patterns to nature, etc , although it sometimes came across simplistically.
the story moved along okay, but, basically he can't write good sentences. i kept
cringing when he tried to get monumental/metaphorical/metaphysical, and felt
embarassed for him - the phrase "fourth-rate pynchon" kept springing to mind. he
obviously thinks he is pretty great, but those are precisely the moments when
the writing is the most laboured and ham-fisted. I did finish it though, so it
didn't make me stop - though the ending was a real let-down, no nabokovian twist
here. are his other books any better? (not that I am thinking of reading them
necessarilly). I'm currently reading "acid dreams" (social history of lsd) by
martin a. lee & bruce shlain - very enjoyable.
peter