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Cryptonomicon  Computer expert Randy Waterhouse spearheads a movement to create a safe haven for data in a world where information equals power and big business and government seek to control the flow of knowledge. His ambitions collide with a top-secret conspiracy with links to the encryption wars of World War II and his grandfather's work in preventing the Nazis from discovering that the Allies had cracked their supposedly unbreakable Enigma code. The author of Snow Crash (LJ 4/1/92) focuses his eclectic vision on a story of epic proportions, encompassing both the beginnings of information technology in the 1940s and the blossoming of the present cybertech revolution. Finished in 63 days |
Composed of three - at times four, even five - plotlines, each with its own narrator; spanning sixty years and told in two distinct time frames; exploring naval warfare, cryptology, the psychology of geeks, and Greek mythology; topping eleven hundred pages in length - this is not a novel for the faint-hearted. It's long and impressively - even confusingly - complex, and sometimes the reading is a bit of a slog.
The stories are intricately interwoven and surprisingly funny; the characters are unique, believable, and memorable; the digressions into science, religion, and everything else are knowledgeable and clearly presented - on the whole this is a very enjoyable read.
