I'm giving up on Cryptonomicon. It's fine I guess--the prose is solid, most of the characters are interesting, and there is lots of engineering--but I just can't for the life of me get into it. The good stuff is few and far between, with lots of long-winded unexplained homages to crypto-guys to pad the length. And fuck me is the length padded.
After pounding away on it for a month I realize that I just don't care. I'd been reading it to see how everything tied together, but a quick google search suggests the ending does not pay off. Anathem had the same problem, except that it was an interesting read the whole way through -- something that unfortunately can't be said of Cryptonomicon.