The Cobweb

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 448 pages
• Published by: Spectra May 31, 2005
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0553383442
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0553383447
• Book Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Weighs: 12 ounces

Reader Reviews
In recent years, Stephenson's work has become increasingly complicated. The Baroque cycle is a study in intricate plots, characters that seem to number in the thousands, and difficult material that is not readily accessible to the average novel reader. The Cryptonomicon met that description as well, but to a lesser degree. While I enjoyed those books precisely for their complexity, many readers probably found them to be frustrating to read and difficult to follow. The Stephen Bury novels do not present this problem for the casual reader. They are stripped of most of the technical lingo, and they tend to follow more in the footsteps of modern thrillers. The difference between these novels and the average Tom Clancy clone is that they revolve around powerful critiques of modern political cultures and bureacracies. The Cobweb is the better of these two novels. The central critique of the intelligence community is that competence without political acumen is tantamount to career suicide. The book tracks the months between Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait and the start of Gulf War I and poses a terrifying question: what if the greatest enemies to our national security are the egomaniacs at the top of the security apparatus? Given the events that have transpired in between the writing of this novel and today, the question raised by this novel seems prescient. The one thing that is lacking from the Stephen Bury novels is the decadence of Stephenson's other works. Stephenson is a novelist who has spent pages discussing the Captain Crunch-eating ritual of one of his characters (Cryptonomicon), the making of watered steel blades (the Baroque Cycle), and other incidental but vastly entertaining subjects too numerous to mention. These passages exquisitely sideline the plots of his books for an exercise in pure intellectual indulgence. Sadly, you will not find any such passages in this novel or in Interface. Comment | | (Report this)