Cryptonomicon -- Neal Stephenson

Cryptonomicon -- Neal Stephenson

This is a really great novel. It's a classic. Even though Stephenson isn't considered a "serious" novelist for some reason, what with all of his books consigned to the sci-fi section, he's a better writer than pretty much anyone I've seen. Cryptonimicon is NOT a sci-fi book, either. It's historical fiction. It deals primarily with the breaking of Nazi & Japanese ciphers in WW2, a shitload of sunken gold, modern attempts to follow the trails of unbroken ciphers, and the treasures to which they lead. Plus it's funnier than any book I've ever read. The humor is balanced by some very big ideas, both mathematical and philosophic. It's even got sex, lots of sex, not to mention violence. If I were to say anything bad, I would say it could easily be shorter. The paperback version I've got weighs in at 900+ pages. Much of the waste is still fun, but digresses into cul-de-sacs that, though entertaining, fail to further the plot. Some of these, however, do flesh out the more abstract ideas. One in particular, near the end, uses Plato's cave allegory to draw equivalence between the Virgin Mary and the Greek goddess Athena, and to further deign Athena as the "good" god of technology, with Ares being the "bad" god... yeah... I read most of that section twice. Even as a ten page digression, it helps to do two things: 1) explain why the Allies defeated the Axis, and 2) reinforce the archetypal theme of the book. There are several storylines operating in the novel, some set during WW2, some set in the present day, all of them intertwined by the genetics of the characters, who are related by blood, and fall into similar behavioral patterns.

Trust me. This is a great novel. Parts of it will slow you down, being perhaps too wordy and descriptive. Other parts will stop you dead in your tracks, and you will say, as I did, "holy fucking shit. that's incredible. how the fuck did he (Stephenson) do that? My favorite scenes are these: 1) the main character / genius mathematician (who does his best work immediately after ejaculating) beds down this freaky British girl in a hammock. 2) the main character, again in dire need for some tail, invents the digital computer while playing the pipe organ, trying to impress the relatives of his eventual wife (whom he must fuck lest the Allies lose the war). 3) The depiction of Pearl Habor. 4) The scene where Alan Turing reveals his homosexuality.

I must reiterate, though, that this is historical FICTION. It freely mixes fact and fiction. It's hard to tell which is which unless you know a bit of history. Some of the WW2 stuff, for instance, is VERY convincing, but utterly untrue. Fun regardless.