Neal Stephenson hacks into the secret histories of nations and the private obsessions of men, decrypting with dazzling virtuosity the forces that have shaped the past century. Weaving together the cracking of the Axis codes during WWII and the quest to establish a free South East Asian 'data haven' for digital information in the present, Cryptonomicon explores themes of power, information, secrecy and war in the twentieth century in a gripping and page-turning thriller. (19990827)
Cryptonomicon
and over 1.5 million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. Special Offer until June 30, 2013: Receive an additional £5 promotional Gift Certificate, when you trade-in at least £10 worth of books. Learn more. |
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Amazon Review
Neal Stephenson enjoys cult status among science fiction fans and techie types thanks to Snow Crash, which so completely redefined conventional notions of the high-tech future that it became a self- fulfilling prophecy. But if his cyberpunk classic was big, Cryptonomicon is huge, gargantuan, massive-- not just in size but in scope and appeal. It's the hip, readable heir to Gravity's Rainbow and the Illuminatus trilogy. And it's only the first of a proposed series--for more information, read our interview with Stephenson.
Cryptonomicon zooms all over the world, careening conspiratorially back and forth between two time periods- -World War II and the present. Our 1940s heroes are the brilliant mathematician Lawrence Waterhouse, cryptanalyst extraordinaire, and gung ho, morphine-addicted marine Bobby Shaftoe. They're part of Detachment 2702, an Allied group trying to break Axis communication codes while simultaneously preventing the enemy from figuring out that their codes have been broken. Their job boils down to layer upon layer of deception. Dr. Alan Turing is also a member of 2702, and he explains the unit's strange workings to Waterhouse. "When we want to sink a convoy, we send out an observation plane first. Of course, to observe is not its real duty--we already know exactly where the convoy is. Its real duty is to be observed. Then, when we come round and sink them, the Germans will not find it suspicious."
All of this secrecy resonates in the present-day story line, in which the grandchildren of the WWII heroes--inimitable programming geek Randy Waterhouse and the lovely and powerful Amy Shaftoe--team up to help create an offshore data haven in Southeast Asia and maybe uncover some gold once destined for Nazi coffers. To top off the paranoiac tone of the book, the mysterious Enoch Root, key member of Detachment 2702 and the Societas Eruditorum, pops up with an unbreakable encryption scheme left over from WWII to befuddle the 1990s protagonists with conspiratorial ties.
Cryptonomicon is vintage Stephenson from start to finish: short on plot, but long on detail and so precise it's exhausting. Every page has a math problem, a quotable in-joke, an amazing idea or a bit of sharp prose. Cryptonomicon is also packed with truly weird characters, funky tech, and crypto--all the crypto you'll ever need, in fact, not to mention all the computer jargon of the moment. A word to the wise: if you read this book in one sitting, you may die of information overload (and starvation). --Therese Littleton, Amazon.com --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
Cryptonomicon, a novel of such ambition and intensity that most modern fiction looks timid and shallow in comparison... (Guardian )
Cryptonomicon was dauntingly vast: brilliant, splenetic, paranoid and beguiling in roughly equal measures... Stephenson's...thrilling fluency (TLS )
An audaciously conceived tale of code-making and code-breaking (New York Times )
A brilliant patchwork of codebreaking mathematicians and their descendants who are striving to create a data-haven in the Philippines...trust me on this one (The Guardian )
Cryptonomicon was dauntingly vast: brilliant, splenetic, paranoid and beguiling in roughly equal measures... Stephenson's...thrilling fluency (TLS )
An audaciously conceived tale of code-making and code-breaking (New York Times )
A brilliant patchwork of codebreaking mathematicians and their descendants who are striving to create a data-haven in the Philippines...trust me on this one (The Guardian )
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
42 of 42 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Cryptonomicon - never heard of it. Neal Stephenson - never heard of him, sounds interesting though and I have a long train journey ahead of me, oh go on then..... I was hooked, didn't want the train to stop until I'd finished (the size of this book would've made it the longest train journey in history but...).
Stephenson's characters, the dual storyline, the historical facts about the Enigma machine are all superbly done.
When one storyline breaks, you feel sad that it's going to be a few chapters till you see them again, but after a page of the other storyline you feel the same way.
This book was a complete gamble for me - it's even out of my usual genre, but probably one of the best gambles of my life, a thoroughly enjoyable read from start to finish - funny, serious, exciting - everything a great book should be - go & buy it now!!
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I can quite honestly say that is the best book I have ever read in my life. Neal Stephenson's writing style very much came into it's own here. His interest in how the events in our parents lives shape our own (also seen in Snow Crash and The Diamond Age); His interest in things technological, oriental, even fantasy role play.
Ok, so a good 2 thirds of this book are set in WW2, it still remains very much a sci-fi book. Strangely, some people seem to have taken issue with this, though I don't understand why this should be a problem.
The book is vastly entertaining, witty, insightful and often sad (when one of the main characters met an heroic end, I was truly truly gutted). The cahracters are not thin, they're some of the most interesting and rounded that I've come across in Stephenson's work.
Yes its very very long (900 pages +). This shouldn't be a problem, but in an age of goldfish like attention span it apparently is. I have to admit to being daunted at first, but by page 300 this book had become a real part of my life and I was already having to face up to the fact that one day I would finish it.
Please please read this book.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By M. E. Birch
Format:Paperback
I was given this last year by a friend. Well - when I say I was given it I mean I was allowed to keep it if I bought him a 1st edition for Christmas - anyway..... He warned me I might not like it because it was a bit blokey and had a lot of maths in it. If like me you are not a bloke or a techy and don't know much about maths(having forgotten all that O level stuff from 40 odd years ago) don't let it put you off. This is a brilliant book. Not a quick read, it's very dense and full of intriguing information and you have to pay attention, but it repays your efforts. It's a fast moving, very funny and well written romp through the second half of the 20th century, full of fascinating characters - some of them real - and with an intertwining of plot-lines that I found irresistible.
I tried to get my book group to read it but they chickened out over the 900 odd pages. But I loved almost every one of 'em and am looking forward to embarking on the Baroque Trilogy. I reckon one volume per winter for the next three years!
I tried to get my book group to read it but they chickened out over the 900 odd pages. But I loved almost every one of 'em and am looking forward to embarking on the Baroque Trilogy. I reckon one volume per winter for the next three years!
50 of 53 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It's funny to see another reader declare this as the best book they've ever read. I agree. Whenever you see such overblown praise it's easy to dismiss such comments, but this truly is a brilliant book in so many ways.
There are many threads to the novel (I often go back and just read one of the threads) but two main settings. A modern, eastern world with paranoid, clever people setting up a technology business. The other half is set in the Second World War and also has paranoid (for much more obvious reasons), really, really clever people (like Alan Turing) trying to win the war by breaking codes and then disguising that they have. Both worlds are hugely different and Stephenson manages to keep them apart, whilst of course, also showing that the past is ultimately responsible and connected to the present.
The main characters are incredibly well drawn and there is little romanticism on the authors part. They are clearly products of their time and this fits neatly into the main themes of the book.
And the themes are literally huge. The books is about the distance and connections. The novel's world is huge... not only is the book setting global (virtually every place on earth is visited by one character or another at some point, except perhaps South America) but there is also the generation distances. As you read you begin to realise that all the characters are connected, usually by the thinnest of threads. Good examples are the relationship between Alan Turing and his German counterpart. Having once met, they continue a relationship on opposite sides of a war. Without directly communicating to each other what they do is carefully watch the other, analysing every action with mathematical accuracy. A simple analogy would be two spiders at different sides of the web.
... Read more ›9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Sometimes a book comes along that leaves the reader dazed with the author's vision, scope and ambition. Neal Stephenson has done this a few times with his work, but arguably never better than in Cryptonomicon.
The novel follows two stories in parallel. In WWII, a group of cryptologists based at Bletchley Park are struggling to crack the German codes so the British and Americans can more effectively combat the German U-boat threat. In the present, a group of businessmen are attempting to build a data haven in the (fictious) Pacific state of Kinakuta. Both plotlines draw on codes, cryptology, cryptoanalysis and the blurring of the genres of science fiction and historical fiction (a line which is even further muddied by the subsequent Baroque Cycle, which serves as a quasi-prequel series to this novel).
It is difficult to describe the book. It's scope is huge, sprawling across Europe, America, the Phillippines and other parts of the world in two different time periods, incorporating dozens of major characters of note and very effectively educating the reader about the science of codes and puzzles (far more effectively than the amateurish Da Vinci Code) before the two storylines very effectively come together at the end of the book. Stephenson's style is very readable, occasionally dense, but often very funny. There are longeurs and apparently unrelated episodes in the book which are masterfully re-incorporated into the greater narrative to form a cohesive whole. It's a book about secrets, what it costs to hold those secrets, and the consequences when those secrets are revealed. It's a war story and a techno-thriller at the same time. It is a unique work.
Cryptonomicon won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2000 and unquestionably deserved it.... Read more ›
The novel follows two stories in parallel. In WWII, a group of cryptologists based at Bletchley Park are struggling to crack the German codes so the British and Americans can more effectively combat the German U-boat threat. In the present, a group of businessmen are attempting to build a data haven in the (fictious) Pacific state of Kinakuta. Both plotlines draw on codes, cryptology, cryptoanalysis and the blurring of the genres of science fiction and historical fiction (a line which is even further muddied by the subsequent Baroque Cycle, which serves as a quasi-prequel series to this novel).
It is difficult to describe the book. It's scope is huge, sprawling across Europe, America, the Phillippines and other parts of the world in two different time periods, incorporating dozens of major characters of note and very effectively educating the reader about the science of codes and puzzles (far more effectively than the amateurish Da Vinci Code) before the two storylines very effectively come together at the end of the book. Stephenson's style is very readable, occasionally dense, but often very funny. There are longeurs and apparently unrelated episodes in the book which are masterfully re-incorporated into the greater narrative to form a cohesive whole. It's a book about secrets, what it costs to hold those secrets, and the consequences when those secrets are revealed. It's a war story and a techno-thriller at the same time. It is a unique work.
Cryptonomicon won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2000 and unquestionably deserved it.... Read more ›
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 1,016 reviews
4.1 out of 5 stars
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Nothing happens!
I was really looking forward to reading my first Neal Stephenson book but oh was I disappointed. I struggled through the first two hundred pages of this mighty book but, I can... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Castlerock
5.0 out of 5 stars
Geeky fun at its best!
If you can admit to being a great big dork, are an active anorak wearer, have an unhealthy interest in cryptology, mathematics, enjoy the thought of more WW2 trivia than you could... Read more
Published 1 month ago by bloodymary
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic history/fiction
It's thicker than a phone book, has pages of code, equations and graphs and yet it is thoroughly enjoyable, phenomenal romp through the 20th century. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mr. David Garratt
2.0 out of 5 stars
unnecessarily meandering, felt cheated by the ending
a great opportunity lost, didnt let the techno stuff put me off and stuck with it till the rather flat end which i felt rather cheated by, having slogged through all those pages of... Read more
Published 3 months ago by c
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing
Title said it all: Amazing. A great adventure novel that runs in separate time frames to give you war time advances that lead to the fist computer; and the race for control of the... Read more
Published 3 months ago by M. J. Brindley
5.0 out of 5 stars
Definitely one of my top 10
This is a great book fusing adventure, war stories, cryptography, and humour. I can't do it justice. Read more
Published 4 months ago by S. Walker
5.0 out of 5 stars
Masterful storytelling
I have worked through the Baroque Cycle over the last three years and felt compelled to read Cryptonomicon to complete the picture. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Forefeet
4.0 out of 5 stars
Technical and interesting but be warned
I'll echo what has been said by previous reviewers in that while you'll get more out of this book if you're computer literate and technically minded, the more obtuse mathy sections... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mr. Gareth J. Hughes
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wacky - but with a grain of reality
A good read - liked the simple explanations of "code" and how it fits in with reality today - the story was well handled and the words used enjoyable to read. Read more
Published 5 months ago by J. Smith
1.0 out of 5 stars
Where's the editor?
While other negative reviewers have said it all, my irritation with this book overcame my reticence. Read more
Published 6 months ago by R. Fildes
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
