Neal Stephenson: Cryptonomicon
http://www.cryptonomicon.com/
I'm not sure that I would personally class this as Science Fiction, more action/adventure with a technological bent, but it seems to come under the wing of Cyberculture and it is in the SciFi section of every bookshop that I've been into. None of the technology is far fetched though the ultimate reason for forming the company Epiphyte is futuristic. I do think it is an excellent read, and a gripping and page turning thriller.
It is set during both the Second World War and the present time, concerned with both Nazi/Japanese Gold and an attempt to establish a free South East Asian 'data haven' for digital information in the present day. It also follows several generations of the same families whose lives have become inextricably entwined, even if they don’t realise themselves.
I won't spoil the plot for those that haven't read it, because the story really jumps around and alters with each chapter, but that does make it confusing at times and sometimes I needed to go back and read a part again to be sure I read it right.
One thing I didn't like was the killing off and then resurrecting of a major character. It was necessary to keep you guessing about his identity, but describing someone’s feelings on the death of a comrade and having a doctor sign a death certificate -- to me this means the person is certainly dead. It was a clumsy way to achieve the suspense and I felt my time had been wasted wondering who the person was.
Another thing I didn't like was his messing around with geography. He does this in the Southwest Pacific with an island called Kinakuta that cannot exist where he places it, and isn't Brunei, but has a leader who is the cousin of the Sultan of Brunei. He also does it in the UK with a strange place in the north of Scotland called Outer and Inner Qwghlm. Qwghlm is not the Hebrides since they don't speak Gaelic but a language that as he describes it could only be Welsh. Welsh was used for coding messages like the Americans used Navajo. So why not just call it Wales? Well, I think his problem was that the narrative called for a U-boat to be stranded on a shore for a considerable time, and having that in the shipping lanes out of Liverpool would be even more unbelievable than having a castle built on the Outer Hebrides. I’m not sure why he couldn’t use the real places when he uses real people such as Alan Turing as characters. But I found it annoying.
On the plus side, I found it excellent the way he made what he wrote, essentially a history lesson in Cryptology and early Computing, so interesting. I would compare it favourably to Michael Crichton, who also explains the science he uses in his books, but in his the narrative always seems to stop for a while, whereas here it just seems to flow together, even when explaining computer jargon and how to decode cyphers.
He manages to pack in the cracking of the Enigma and other Axis codes, Colossus, and the development of digital memory, Huffduff, and Van Eck Phreaking; while taking in every part of the world, including North Africa, Italy, Sweden, Los Angeles, Seattle, Brisbane, Shanghai, Tokyo and Manila, with a wealth of detailed and interesting characters such as gung ho, morphine-addicted marine Bobby Shaftoe, and Randy Waterhouse, a crypto geek in love with Bobby's tough-as-nails scuba diving grand-daughter, Amy.
There is a lot of humour in the book too, especially in the digressions such as Randy’s digression describing how to eat Cap ‘n Crunch with ice cold milk. Some of the other digressions I am unable to write about on this forum!
I originally thought that it was going to be a touch too long at 910 pages, but the ending is a little unsatisfactory and I really wanted to know more. Apparently there will be sequels.
http://www.cryptonomicon.com/
I'm not sure that I would personally class this as Science Fiction, more action/adventure with a technological bent, but it seems to come under the wing of Cyberculture and it is in the SciFi section of every bookshop that I've been into. None of the technology is far fetched though the ultimate reason for forming the company Epiphyte is futuristic. I do think it is an excellent read, and a gripping and page turning thriller.
It is set during both the Second World War and the present time, concerned with both Nazi/Japanese Gold and an attempt to establish a free South East Asian 'data haven' for digital information in the present day. It also follows several generations of the same families whose lives have become inextricably entwined, even if they don’t realise themselves.
I won't spoil the plot for those that haven't read it, because the story really jumps around and alters with each chapter, but that does make it confusing at times and sometimes I needed to go back and read a part again to be sure I read it right.
One thing I didn't like was the killing off and then resurrecting of a major character. It was necessary to keep you guessing about his identity, but describing someone’s feelings on the death of a comrade and having a doctor sign a death certificate -- to me this means the person is certainly dead. It was a clumsy way to achieve the suspense and I felt my time had been wasted wondering who the person was.
Another thing I didn't like was his messing around with geography. He does this in the Southwest Pacific with an island called Kinakuta that cannot exist where he places it, and isn't Brunei, but has a leader who is the cousin of the Sultan of Brunei. He also does it in the UK with a strange place in the north of Scotland called Outer and Inner Qwghlm. Qwghlm is not the Hebrides since they don't speak Gaelic but a language that as he describes it could only be Welsh. Welsh was used for coding messages like the Americans used Navajo. So why not just call it Wales? Well, I think his problem was that the narrative called for a U-boat to be stranded on a shore for a considerable time, and having that in the shipping lanes out of Liverpool would be even more unbelievable than having a castle built on the Outer Hebrides. I’m not sure why he couldn’t use the real places when he uses real people such as Alan Turing as characters. But I found it annoying.
On the plus side, I found it excellent the way he made what he wrote, essentially a history lesson in Cryptology and early Computing, so interesting. I would compare it favourably to Michael Crichton, who also explains the science he uses in his books, but in his the narrative always seems to stop for a while, whereas here it just seems to flow together, even when explaining computer jargon and how to decode cyphers.
He manages to pack in the cracking of the Enigma and other Axis codes, Colossus, and the development of digital memory, Huffduff, and Van Eck Phreaking; while taking in every part of the world, including North Africa, Italy, Sweden, Los Angeles, Seattle, Brisbane, Shanghai, Tokyo and Manila, with a wealth of detailed and interesting characters such as gung ho, morphine-addicted marine Bobby Shaftoe, and Randy Waterhouse, a crypto geek in love with Bobby's tough-as-nails scuba diving grand-daughter, Amy.
There is a lot of humour in the book too, especially in the digressions such as Randy’s digression describing how to eat Cap ‘n Crunch with ice cold milk. Some of the other digressions I am unable to write about on this forum!
I originally thought that it was going to be a touch too long at 910 pages, but the ending is a little unsatisfactory and I really wanted to know more. Apparently there will be sequels.
