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 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 icon

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I love it whole heartedly, but I'm a Computer Scientist. I understand the programs, the math, and the cryptography which comes up from time to time. People totally unfamiliar with it will find these sections boring, possibly pompous. I think you can skip over these without losing the story.

Even though the writing style is usually light-hearted, Stephenson does tackle big topics. A major focus is on the role of money in a society. He also looks at anticipation being more enjoyable than the actual event, especially in relationships.

If you're a hacker - buy it without thought. If you're not a hacker - stop by a brick-and-mortar store, read a few pages, and, if you like what you see, take a chance. Truly, I can't think of a book I enjoyed more. Besides, if you read it you'll find out what the phrase "the most cigarettes" means. :)

50 of 50 found the following review helpful:

Not Just For Cyberpunk FansApr 30, 2000
By Paul C. Roethele
Neal Stephenson's latest book, Cryptonomicon, will appeal to a wider fan base that his previous novels. Having read all of Stephenson's previous novels (with the exception of the elusive The Big U) I was surprised to find this book lacking in ultra-futuristic technology, and presented as more of a straight war story/business suspense novel. As usual, Stephenson's character development and prose is amazing, and if you work in high-tech or mathematics you will instantly realize how well Stephenson knows the personalities of these people. As with Snow Crash, the book takes a while to get up to speed, but once it does you'll find yourself not wanting to put it down. As other reviewers have mentioned, there are many potentionally confusing plot twists, so the reader must pay close attention at times or risk getting lost. Stephenson also gives a thorough grounding in the mathematics of cryptography, although the pages of formulas and explanations can thankfully be skimmed by the mathematically-challenged (like myself) without losing the story. The book also doesn't fall apart towards the end as many thought Snow Crash did - in fact, at one point you will smack your forehead when you realize how everything fits together, and you can't wait to see how it ends. Overall, an excellent read.

135 of 146 found the following review helpful:

A joy to read. . .Aug 07, 2002
By Nathan
Going in to CRYPTONOMICON, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I'd never read anything by Neal Stephenson, nor had I read any blurbs or reviews of the book. However, it had appeared on enough "Best Book" lists that I decided to give it a try. And boy am I glad I did.

This novel is fun, huge, funny, rambling, witty, and sprawling. It is clever, engaging, and well-paced. It is full of quirky, eccentric, immensely likeable characters, crazy, interesting ideas, and amusing, often hilarious, looks at various situations including, but not limited to, mathematics, life, how to eat Cap'n Crunch properly, the purpose of beards, and well, just about anything else you can think of. Obviously, then, this book is not for everyone. Those who like tight, meticulously pared-down straightforward stories may not be able to get into this one.

For me, though, as you may have guessed from the title of the review, this book was an absolute joy to read. The books chapters cycled between four main characters, and every time I finished a chapter I found myself in an awkward position: I didn't want to go on, because I wanted to keep reading about the character I'd been following. However, by the end of the first paragraph of the next chapter, I'd be feeling the same way about the next character in the cycle. It was an odd feeling, and a tribute to the skill with which Stephenson created these characters that each of them was so completely engaging.

In addition to the main characters, the settings and situations were vivid and well-drawn. Despite this books immensity and its tendency to ramble at length about inanity, it never got boring, and always retained its charm. Stephenson provides us with a very amusing outlook on life.

However, this book is not without flaws, the two biggest of which have been noted in previous reviews:

1) Women. There are no really well-developed female characters. Most of the women have virtually no "screen time" at all, and the one who does have quite a bit of time is not fully realized as a character. It would have been very helpful to have gotten inside her head once in a while.

2) The ending. This book kind of just ends, without resolving properly. It feels like it just cuts off, and that was kind of unsatisfactory. Randy's story deserved at least another chapter or an epilogue of some sort to tie-up the plot. Alas, Stephenson, at the end, couldn't deliver.

So, as I've said, this book is delightfully readable, and if not for the sudden ending, would easily have garnered a 5/5 rating. I'm definitely looking forward to the next CRYPTONOMICON book (which, if I'm not mistaken, is intended to stand alone; it will not be a sequel, per se).

38 of 42 found the following review helpful:

Wow! What a ride through history, math, present, and styleSep 02, 2000
By David J. Huber "Addicted to books!"
Just finished the book - and while reading it, I recommended it to many others because I was enjoying it so much. I kept telling people "I'm reading the coolest book - you have to read it, too!" Very well written. Moves at an incredible pace, the dialogue is believable, and of course the excursions into math, cryptology, engineering, computers, eating Captain Crunch so it doesn't lacerate the roof of your mouth, and all those incredible observations about society/culture/whatever-is-in-front-of-them that only engineers and sceintists can make are the icing on what would be an incredibly well-written tale even without all that stuff.

What makes the book so excellent, though, is the believable story and the believable characters. I found that I liked all of them because they were so real - I even cared about the bad guys. Still want them to lose, of course, but as a *reader*, I cared about them, and that's what keeps driving a reader on through a story.

It's certainly a book that requires some commitment - it is very long, but I tell you, after hitting page 800, I was depressed, knowing that I had only another 110 pages of this joyful reading ahead of me. How many books have done that to you lately? In the last ten years? I read hundreds of books each year, most of them I can bring myself to enjoy even if they aren't great literature, but it is rare that I am so much enjoying a book that I begin to question if I should slow down, just so I can savor the enjoyment longer - and I did that a lot with this book.

Stephenson has a way with words that will leave you breathless and in awe at his skill at writing. His metaphors are brilliant, sometimes hilarious. His so-true-to-daily-life descriptions had me laughing out loud on the subway and in the laundromat. And if you are an engineer or scientist, you will get all the added benefit of the "inside" jokes, descriptions, observations, etc. I am stupified by Stephenson's genius at pulling this thing off. If only more writers could be as sharp.

While this is not the kind of social commentary/critique that great art generally is, it will, I think, leave the reader a different person than when s/he began the book. I know it has affected me on some levels - not greatly, in the way that 1984 or Moby Dick does - but the reader is left (if they've been paying attention) viewing the world a little differently.

Lastly, if you've ever hung out with engineers or scientists, and gotten mad/confused at them for their seemingly cold/analytical way of looking at the world, this book is a great resource for coming to understand why they think that way, and what it means to them. I have recommended this book to a couple people simply so that, perhaps, they will have a better understanding of why I do and say the things I do (I am an engineer/scientist by training). For so realistically showing the thought processes, and motivations, of the science-inclined, I applaud Stephenson. For writing a book that is an awful lot of fun to read, I appaud him, too. Truly one of the best books in my library.

23 of 24 found the following review helpful:

In dire need of an editorMar 16, 2008
By Seastape
Have you ever hated yourself for finishing a book? For a long, long month, I resisted my own desire and my wife's urgings to drop the book. I should have listened. The book badly needs editing, the characters are shallow, and the author's (very) high opinion of himself stains the pages. There are two crypto-analytic themes to this book: World War II codebreaking and the struggles of a modern day cryptographic computer company to turn profitable. By page 500 (of the 910), I had no idea how they related; by page 700, I had an inkling but no longer cared. I only finished because I felt some undefined need to do so.
I would guess that by the time Stephenson wrote this book, he had enough critical and financial success that he was able to demand no restraints from his publisher. Consequently, the writing meanders and much of it is irrelevant. Stephenson dedicates three pages to description when three paragraphs (and sometimes only three sentences) will do. Worse yet, many of these wanderings are completely unrelated to the story, such as discussions of Captain Crunch and wisdom teeth. By page 300, the reader can see when these airy insignificances arise, and to continue, he or she must painfully wade through them.
Most of the characters in the book share the exact same personality: gruff and cynical. The exceptions are academics, who are portrayed as wimps with no grasp on reality, and East Asians, who all have a personality similar to the characters from Shogun. Otherwise, a World War II Marine shares the same personality as a modern day billionaire-investor who shares the same personality as a modern day entrepreneur. An example of the same-flavor feel of Stephenson's characters: One character (Enoch Root) was an Army Priest during World War II and dedicated himself to peaceful causes afterwards. By the time one of the modern characters encounters Root, in a jail cell in the Phillippines, Root (who must be at least in his mid-eighties) has been running a Church in the Phillippines for a number of years. Nevertheless, Root describes the goddess Athena as a virgin who was "leg-f***ked [] once but did not achieve penetration." This same character uses the word "dissed," just like any modern fifteen year old boy. Character development, needless to say, is non-existent in this book.
On the plus side, Stephenson has encyclopedic knowledge and an expansive vocabulary. Even this becomes a turn-off, however: Stephenson's writing reflects a man who thinks of himself as intellectually beyond the realm of mere mortals. Perhaps he is different in real life, but he comes across as the geek in high school who justified his social-ineptitude by the fact that he got great grades (especially in math!). That same geek who got great grades lost many arguments because he lacked intellectual and logical skills outside of "book learnin'."
Stephenson is like that: For example, he ticks off a long list of German and American technological advances during World War II, but then concludes that the Allies won because America stood for technological advance while Germany stood for mindless warfare. In another story line, Stephenson's modern day protagonists set out to create a data bank near the Phillippines that is protected by the most advanced cryptography in existence. These protagonists are some of the most brilliant computer code-writers and cryptographers in the world, and they are attempting to set up a company which hides information so well that even governments cannot access it. These same brilliant people are shocked to discover that criminals are keenly interested in the project. Again, Stephenson has incredible knowledge but weak logical skills.
Why give the book two stars instead of one? There are some redeeming aspects of the book: I liked the aspects of cryptography and analysis, a subject to which I have never paid much attention. Any book that I can learn from cannot be all bad.

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