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Cryptonomicon
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By Jaret, Section Fiction (not archived on 4Literature)
Posted on Fri May 30th, 2003 at 06:12:15 AM EST
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Cryptonomicon is Neal Stephenson's bestselling 910 page opus dealing with a conspiracy spanning generations and continents, with the power to change the world.
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Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, 1999.
It's hard to accurately pigeonhole Cryptonomicon. It's a historical novel with a trove of factual data from World War 2. It's a techno-thriller, with the plot revolving around such things as cryptography, electronic cash, and data havens. It's even science fiction (according to Stephenson), with at least one unexplainable event in the story.
Cryptonomicon is one story following three men in two time periods.
Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse - Child prodigy and mathematical genius, Waterhouse finds himself in Princeton just before World War 2 under the tutelage of people such as Alan Turing (one of the fathers of modern computing). Once war breaks out, the Allies find his cryptographic (code-breaking) talent essential to the war effort. Waterhouse helps break the famous German code Enigma, giving the United States and Britain a critical advantage.
Bobby Shaftoe - A marine stationed in China before the outbreak of War, and a hero in the Pacific theater shortly after. Not just a marine, but the quintessential jarhead - Bobby Shaftoe is tough, courageous, and gung ho. Upon recognition of his heroics in the Pacific, Shaftoe is entrusted with a far more important mission: to protect the secret of Enigma, together with Waterhouse and detachment 2702.
Randy Waterhouse - Computer geek and grandson of Lawrence Waterhouse. In the present day, Randy has started Epiphyte Corporation with the ambitious plan to provide a place to store and exchange encrypted data on an island in the South Pacific, safe from repression or scrutiny, a hedge against privacy-unfriendly legislation (like real-world Carnivore)
Stephenson alternately tells the story of these three men, switching from one point of view and time to another. This isn't as disconcerting as it sounds, because in the early parts of the book it's as if you are reading multiple stories at once. With time, these three plot threads are woven together along with a few minor ones including Bobby's granddaughter Amy Shaftoe, a Japanese soldier named Goto Dengo, and an enigmatic and unorthodox priest named Enoch Root.
Cryptonomicon is dense with information, and you get the feeling that Stephenson had extensive prior knowledge of a range of subjects including computers and cryptography, mathematics, construction, and business. At times he tends to ramble or explain to an extent just a bit beyond what the average reader may be looking for, so be ready to learn while you read.
Though I normally prefer a single point of view and a more linear timeline, Cryptonomicon easily managed to keep my attention. Neal Stephenson has a very distinctive writing style, and his dark wit make some of the otherwise dry sections palatable. Some random examples of his felicity with words:
People smell all kinds of ways before they have burned, but only one way afterwards.
As nightmarishly lethal, memetically programmed death-machines went, these were the nicest you could ever hope to meet.
Stephenson also makes the rather unusual choice of having nearly all of the narration in the present tense. The rare exception to this is when he pauses to provide background information. With the present tense, even passages in the past get an unusual form of immediacy, like so:
The marine raiders' bodies are no longer pressurized with blood and breath. The weight of their gear flattens them into the sand. The accelerating surf has already begun to shovel silt over them; comet trails of blood fade back into the ocean, red carpets for any sharks who may be browsing the coastline.
I highly recommend Cryptonomicon for its unique style and artfully woven plot. It's a bit long in spots, but the novelty of the material presented should pull you through. Should you happen to like it, more are on the way in the series with the prequel Quicksilver out soon.
[And once you've read Cryptonomicon, look here for some speculation about one of the mysteries of the book.]
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