Cryptonomicon

Paperback, 918 pages

English language

Published Nov. 19, 2000 by Perennial.

ISBN:
978-0-380-78862-0
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
44428981

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (25 reviews)

E-book extras: "Stephensonia/Cryptonomica": ONE: "Cryptonomicon Cypher-FAQ" (Neal addresses "Frequently Anticipated Questions" and other fascinating facts); TWO: "Mother Earth Motherboard" (Neal's landmark nonfiction account of, among other techno-feats, the laying of the longest telecommunications cable on earth); THREE: "Press Conference": Neal answers "Why write about crypto?" and other penetrating questions.The smash New York Times bestseller and cult classic is at last a special-features-loaded e-book. Dashing between World War II and the present day, Cryptonomicon is an epic adventure of codemakers and codebreakers; soldiers, hackers, spies, pirates, lovers, prisoners; power, secrets, conspiracies, great escapes -- and a buried fortune in gold."Engrossing … insightful ... fascinating and often hysterical... Cryptonomicon is really three novels in one, featuring healthy portions of World War II adventure, cryptography, and high-tech finance, with treasure hunting thrown in for good measure... But that's only half of it." —USA Today "Hell of a read." —WiredNeal Stephenson (Snow Crash; The …

16 editions

Review of 'Cryptonomicon' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

In 2022 the idea that a cryptocurrency is perfect because "uhhh taxes are bad?" seems very naive. Also the protagonists are good because they don't like the Holocaust and that's literally it.

Otherwise this is still a hilarious romp through signals intelligence in WW2 and an absolute joy for me.

Review of 'Cryptonomicon' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

A later update. I'm downgrading this to 4.5 ⭐. Thinking back, there are too many passages that are clumsy or unfinished threads to be a true five ⭐. It's still been my best read of this year, though.
_____

Wow. What a ride. Absolutely the best book I have read this year.
I am fairly.new to to Stephenson, having read only "Snowcrash" from him before this, but I am certainly going to seek out more of him after this. The multi-threaded creative detail in this rivals AS Byatt's "Possession", but is more accessible and a lot funnier.

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Subjects

  • World War, 1939-1945 -- Cryptography -- Fiction
  • Data encryption (Computer science) -- Fiction

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