With this extraordinary first volume in what promises to be an epoch-making masterpiece, Neal Stephenson hacks into the secret histories of nations and the private obsessions of men, decrypting with dazzling virtuosity the forces that shaped this century.In 1942, Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse — mathematical genius and young Captain in the U.S. Navy — is assigned to detachment 2702. It is an … is an outfit so secret that only a handful of people know it exists, and some of those people have names like Churchill and Roosevelt. The mission of Watrehouse and Detatchment 2702 — commanded by Marine Raider Bobby Shaftoe — is to keep the Nazis ignorant of the fact that Allied Intelligence has cracked the enemy’s fabled Enigma code. It is a game, a cryptographic chess match between Waterhouse and his German counterpart, translated into action by the gung-ho Shaftoe and his forces.
Fast-forward to the present, where Waterhouse’s crypto-hacker grandson, Randy, is attempting to create a “data haven” in Southeast Asia — a place where encrypted data can be stored and exchanged free of repression and scrutiny. As governments and multinationals attack the endeavor, Randy joins forces with Shaftoe’s tough-as-nails grandaughter, Amy, to secretly salvage a sunken Nazi sumarine that holds the key to keeping the dream of a data haven afloat. But soon their scheme brings to light a massive conspiracy with its roots in Detachment 2702 linked to an unbreakable Nazi code called Arethusa. And it will represent the path to unimaginable riches and a future of personal and digital liberty… or to universal totalitarianism reborn.
A breathtaking tour de force, and Neal Stephenson’s most accomplished and affecting work to date, Cryptonomicon is profound and prophetic, hypnotic and hyper-driven, as it leaps forward and back between World War II and the World Wide Web, hinting all the while at a dark day-after-tomorrow. It is a work of great art, thought and creative daring; the product of a truly iconoclastic imagination working with white-hot intensity.
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Very creative, as are most books by this author.
One of my Top 10 books of all time (modern era)
Made me want to learn cryptography.
Several years ago my older brother suggested that I find a copy of this and be prepared to be amazed. Typical Neal Stephenson; you have to sort of drag your way through the first several chapters but then as things fall into place it becomes obvious what a complete genius this guy is. The amount of thought, planning, imagination, and …
Prescient. This and the subsequent novels build on the idea of the evolution of money as data. Stephenson wrote these 20 years before blockchain hit the public conscientiousness . Wonderful characters and history weave in and out.
Fantastic Historical Novel! This was my first exposure to the great writing talents of Neal Stephenson and wow, totally immersive book. At a 1000 plus pages ni was expecting a slog of weeks to get through this. Boy was I ever wrong! Once I started, I couldn’t put it down. I finished the book in three days and in those three days I found myself …
Defies easy description. A WWII spy thriller mixed with a modern-day techno-heist that teaches as much as it entertains.
One of many wonderful books from Neal Stephenson, this is one of his best. Excellent in every way for the genre.
Outstanding book, highly recommend this book. A lengthy read, but well worth the investment, not nearly as long as it looks because it moves and flows so well. A very enjoyable read in which Neal Stephenson weaves a story about cryptography into a modern story about computers and a crypto-currency with a story about the emergence of digital …
Great book. Love Neal.