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Cryptonomicon    by Neal Stephenson Amazon.com order for
Cryptonomicon
by Neal Stephenson
Order:  USA  Can
Avon, 2000 (1999)
Hardcover, Softcover, Audio

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* * *   Reviewed by Wesley Williamson

Cryptonomicon is a densely plotted, many sided novel, shifting in time between World War II and the present. In it we meet Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse, a mathematician and friend of Alan Turing. Waterhouse joins detachment 2702, a group dedicated to preventing the Nazis from learning that their codes are being read by the Allies - a pivotal event in the progress of the war. Muscle for detachment 2702 is provided by Bobby Shaftoe, a Marine Raider.

Moving forward to the present time, the story follows Waterhouse's grandson, a crypto-hacker. Randy Waterhouse is involved in setting up a data haven in the South Pacific and in the process meets Amy, the granddaughter of Bobby Shaftoe. Randy becomes entangled in salvaging gold from a Nazi submarine --- just to begin with. Cryptonomicon is very well done. The science is persuasive, the many characters are well drawn and interesting, and the imagination never flags. This is a very different novel from Stephenson's earlier The Diamond Age but at least as well written.

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