Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Stephenson has written a wonderful emulation of the 17th Century "Rogue's Novel", along the lines of Simplicissimus or other early examples of the novels which spawned the later Romanesque. Unfortunately, these novels are plotless, devoid of conflict, and the characters in them have the unfortunate tendency to be ill-developed and passive, simple observers to the events around them rather than active participants in them. As such, Stephenson has written a wonderful Rogue's Novel - unfortunately, these novels died 300 years ago for good reason. They suck. His characters, from the well-educated to the illiterate, the aged male to the child female, the king to the rat-catcher, all speak with the same voice. Many of Stephenson's metaphors are so cludgy they hearken back to The Diamond Age. The characters in the book drift through the events he details without really having an effect upon them - despite the fact that he tries to make them into key players. There is no conflict. The characters drift through such an amazing set of events with a kind of passivity that would make Tom Pynchon blush and Albert Camus worship. I am hopeful the next books in the series will actually have something to bite into, for if this book was no simply "setting the stage", as it were, then Stephenson has taken a mighty plunge since Crypto.