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A reader posted a review at .
(Language: English)
Cryptonomicon follows the story of Randy Waterhouse in the present day, intertwined with the second world war experiences of Lawrence Waterhouse (Randy's grandfather), Bobby Shaftoe (whose granddaughter Randy falls in love with) and Goto Dengo (whose wartime career turns out to have important consequences for Randy). Alan Turing, and to a lesser extent General Douglas McArthur and Ronald Reagan, make appearances as supporting characters. The world of Cryptonomicon is our own, augmented by the semi-independent state of Qwghlm off the coast of Scotland and the independent south-east Asian principality of Kinakuta.
There is a lot in this book (which at 900 odd pages is the longest of the five Hugo nominees this year). The Cryptonomicon of the title is the body of cryptographic lore which Lawrence Waterhouse first learns and then adds to while working as a code-breaker in the Pacific theatre, Bletchley Park, and then the Pacific theatre again, collaborating off and on with Shaftoe, who in turn encounters Goto Dengo as first an enemy and then a friend. Meanwhile today, Randy Waterhouse and his business partners are finding new ways of exploiting the information age, involving at the very least setting up a free data haven in Kinakuta, and in the future - well, that would be to reveal too much.
And there is much more. Van Eck phreaking; why divers are like hackers, only fitter; Filipino jails; Greek mythology; breakfast cereal; pig shit; the Chinese Army; the mysterious Enoch Root; and a perl script. There is a hilarious confrontation between Randy and a bunch of academics which one feels Stephenson has either transcribed from real life or as mots d'escalier from a real life conversation. Almost the entire book is told in the present tense which adds to the air of breathlessness. The four main characters are well sketched, particularly Randy (who will presumably feature in the future novels of the series which we are told Cryptonomicon begins). The settings, both geographical and political, are vivid.
This is not the cyberpunk future of Stephenson's Snow Crash and The Diamond Age; it is the present day, and the immediate past. There is absolutely nothing in the book (apart from the extra bits of geography) that would fit the normal definition of science fiction. And yet I feel quite sure that this is a genre sf novel, and furthermore that it has an excellent chance of winning the Hugo award. Perhaps it is because this is really a book of ideas rather than character; while Randy, Lawrence, Shaftoe and Dengo are all human beings to whom real things happen, the main theme of the book is culture clash, in particular the way in which the information age will force us to interact differently with the world and especially with governments and states. Some of Stephenson's minor characters are firmly libertarian in outlook; I wasn't left completely sure where his own sympathies lie, and perhaps he hasn't decided yet himself.
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