Instruct: Classify Amazon reviews into positive or negative sentiment
Query: A disappointment.

What is it with authors who disdain the use of straightforward unambiguous language and story lines in deference to obscure pedantic meanderings which are calculated to display their quirky intelligence? I loved Cryptonomicon and couldn't wait for Stephenson's new tomb, but I have been sorely disappointed. I love history when it is told in an engaging and enlightening style. This author however loves to throw out endless historical references without any explanation or context leaving this reader to scratch his head in confusion and to continually reference the Encyclopedia Britannica. This was difficult heavy going made purposely so by the author. All of the gratuitously meretricious meanderings might have been somewhat more tolerable had Stephenson managed to create characters who one cares about. But he failed in this regard as well. This book is a far cry from Cryptonomicon. Beware.