Polostan

I loved Cryptonomicon, which was waaaay longer than this one (which is the beginning book in a series), but for some reason Cryptonomicon was much more interesting and engrossing to me. I'm not sure if my lukewarm response to this book was about me and my disjointed attention at the beginning of a semester or about the book. However, I did find a lot of moments in this book where Stephenson seemed to be showing off all the research he did. Personally, I wanted more Russian Revolution and communist drama. The narrative sometimes took a backseat to the historical setting.

Great characters romp in strange pockets of early 1930's history. I even became curious about polo, which I began the book with no interest in.