Cryptonomicon

Neal Stephenson enjoys cult status among science fiction fans and techie types thanks to Snow Crash, which so completely redefined conventional notions of the high-tech future that it became a self- fulfilling prophecy. But if his cyberpunk classic was big, Cryptonomicon is huge, gargantuan, massive-- not just in size but in scope and appeal. It's the hip, readable heir to Gravity's Rainbow and the Illuminatus trilogy. And it's only the first of a proposed series--for more information, read our interview with Stephenson.

Cryptonomicon zooms all over the world, careening conspiratorially back and forth between two time periods- -World War II and the present. Our 1940s heroes are the brilliant mathematician Lawrence Waterhouse, cryptanalyst extraordinaire, and gung ho, morphine-addicted marine Bobby Shaftoe. They're part of Detachment 2702, an Allied group trying to break Axis communication codes while simultaneously preventing the enemy from figuring out that their codes have been broken. Their job boils down to layer upon layer of deception. Dr. Alan Turing is also a member of 2702, and he explains the unit's strange workings to Waterhouse. "When we want to sink a convoy, we send out an observation plane first. Of course, to observe is not its real duty--we already know exactly where the convoy is. Its real duty is to be observed. Then, when we come round and sink them, the Germans will not find it suspicious."

All of this secrecy resonates in the present-day story line, in which the grandchildren of the WWII heroes--inimitable programming geek Randy Waterhouse and the lovely and powerful Amy Shaftoe--team up to help create an offshore data haven in Southeast Asia and maybe uncover some gold once destined for Nazi coffers. To top off the paranoiac tone of the book, the mysterious Enoch Root, key member of Detachment 2702 and the Societas Eruditorum, pops up with an unbreakable encryption scheme left over from WWII to befuddle the 1990s protagonists with conspiratorial ties.

Cryptonomicon is vintage Stephenson from start to finish: short on plot, but long on detail and so precise it's exhausting. Every page has a math problem, a quotable in-joke, an amazing idea or a bit of sharp prose. Cryptonomicon is also packed with truly weird characters, funky tech, and crypto--all the crypto you'll ever need, in fact, not to mention all the computer jargon of the moment. A word to the wise: if you read this book in one sitting, you may die of information overload (and starvation). --Therese Littleton, Amazon.com

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one of the best books I have ever read, and I am really a SciFi buff - Rated
I bought this and Snow Crash as "cheap fillers" on another order, and I am so glad I did. It is so dense, and each thread is so fascinating, you find yourself so tempted to jump and find how the threads come together. Cannot recommend it highly enough.

Dazzling and defining - Rated
Sometimes a book comes along that leaves the reader dazed with the author's vision, scope and ambition. Neal Stephenson has done this a few times with his work, but arguably never better than in Cryptonomicon.

The novel follows two stories in parallel. In WWII, a group of cryptologists based at Bletchley Park are struggling to crack the German codes so the British and Americans can more effectively combat the German U-boat threat. In the present, a group of businessmen are attempting to build a data haven in the (fictious) Pacific state of Kinakuta. Both plotlines draw on codes, cryptology, cryptoanalysis and the blurring of the genres of science fiction and historical fiction (a line which is even further muddied by the subsequent Baroque Cycle, which serves as a quasi-prequel series to this novel).

It is difficult to describe the book. It's scope is huge, sprawling across Europe, America, the Phillippines and other parts of the world in two different time periods, incorporating dozens of major characters of note and very effectively educating the reader about the science of codes and puzzles (far more effectively than the amateurish Da Vinci Code) before the two storylines very effectively come together at the end of the book. Stephenson's style is very readable, occasionally dense, but often very funny. There are longeurs and apparently unrelated episodes in the book which are masterfully re-incorporated into the greater narrative to form a cohesive whole. It's a book about secrets, what it costs to hold those secrets, and the consequences when those secrets are revealed. It's a war story and a techno-thriller at the same time. It is a unique work.

Cryptonomicon won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2000 and unquestionably deserved it. If The Separation was the first truly great SF novel of the 21st Century, than Cryptonomicon is almost certainly the last great SF novel of the 20th, and one of the few works that I would apply the label 'genius' to.

A great story... squashed in too late - Rated
I would have to say that the 5 star reviews are spot on... but so are the less favourable ones.

Yes, it's a mammoth, obsessively researched, well-written yarn containing some great set-pieces, enthralling ideas and hilarious jokes. And it's surprisingly easy to follow, despite the numerous mathematical formulae and (inaccurate) reviews that liken it to Pynchon... but it just goes on and on! I could point out about two dozen major passages from the first half of the book that add nothing to the story/characterizations at all and only serve to test a readers patience. It took me a good 300 pages (a third of the book) to finally 'get into', yet the real plot (a tale of buried Japanese gold) is crammed into the last 150 pages or so. It's a real shame.

So whilst there is so much to enjoy here, prospective readers need to be aware of the 'task' ahead of them. This isn't the kind of book you can spend half an hour with on the train home - it's much better suited to a long holiday with few distractions (as long as you're happy to pay the weight penalty on your luggage - it's a bit of a monster). But patient readers WILL be rewarded.

It's all a bit of a puzzle.... - Rated
Aptly, this book contains a hidden code....Somewhere inside this epic novel is the bones of the book he should have written.

Stephenson's ambitious scope and erudition dazzles but it also deceives. He has produced a book based on big ideas, what-if history, the developement of big world themes and hip-geekery, which many of us clearly enjoyed (76 reviews and counting......). But I have to confess that, apart from the entertaining history lesson in cryptography, most of the plotting, narrative and characterisation seemed a bit flat and methodical. As if he knew that there was a topic he wanted to address in more detail but he had a contractual brief to fulfil....So instead, he blinded us with a pyrotechnic display that almost screams "screenplay" at us. Look behind the whizzbangs and what can you see?

I wonder if he might have wanted to pursue a more character-driven study of high-functioning geeks and their interactions and impacts with and on the "real world". Rather like Mark Haddon's "Curious Incident" and autism, it tries to give an authentic voice to those sociopaths who seem to feel more comfortable with numbers than with people. It certainly seems to be more perceptive, human and empathetically written when he is dealing with the Randy/Lawrence "inner worlds" and their interactions with and transgressions of societal norms. Unfortunately these passages, although excellent, are rather few and far between. So we are forced to review the book he wrote, not the one he should have written. Taken as a whole, it seems less successful, perhaps more half-hearted when Stephenson is tracing his secondary characters, pushing the plot along, or just plain showing off.

Overlong? Mechanical? Digressive? Contrived? Infuriating? Yes

Enjoyable? Oh yes.

It's all a bit of a puzzle, isn't it?

It's OK girls - It's not just for blokes, geeks and techys! - Rated
I was given this last year by a friend. Well - when I say I was given it I mean I was allowed to keep it if I bought him a 1st edition for Christmas - anyway..... He warned me I might not like it because it was a bit blokey and had a lot of maths in it. If like me you are not a bloke or a techy and don't know much about maths(having forgotten all that O level stuff from 40 odd years ago) don't let it put you off. This is a brilliant book. Not a quick read, it's very dense and full of intriguing information and you have to pay attention, but it repays your efforts. It's a fast moving, very funny and well written romp through the second half of the 20th century, full of fascinating characters - some of them real - and with an intertwining of plot-lines that I found irresistible.
I tried to get my book group to read it but they chickened out over the 900 odd pages. But I loved almost every one of 'em and am looking forward to embarking on the Baroque Trilogy. I reckon one volume per winter for the next three years!