Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
01/10/2003 . Source: Tomas L Martin 

pub: Avon, US. 1135 page paperback. $ 7.99 (US). ISBN: 0-06-051280-6.

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There are certain things most writers wouldn't even consider attempting in something so time-consuming and risky as a novel: Present tense, second person novels. Three chapters of exposition without anything happening. Novels that don't make sense until the end, if at all. Multiple personalities.

Most writers shy immediately away from such disaster areas or they try them (with or without realising), get shot down and months of work are lost.

Then there's Neal Stephenson, who seems to take on all of these challenges and succeed so well that you don't even notice. It took me a good 400 pages to realise that his first novel, 'Snow Crash', was in present tense, something that usually puts a sour taste in my mouth in sentence number one.
Stephenson's common-sense defying exploits continue apace in 'Cryptonomicon', a bizarre mix of three separate storylines in different time periods, seemingly unrelated for much of the first half of the novel's hefty 1135 pages.

The first storyline concerns Lawrence Waterhouse, a mathematician at Princeton in the 1930s together with Alan Turing. As war breaks out, he gets sent to England to crack codes and is then assigned to 2702, a unit designed to prevent the enemy from realising that the Allies have broken all their codes.

Another major character is Corporal Bobby Shaftoe, a commando, also assigned to Detachment 2702. We follow his efforts through numerous military operations, odd little vignettes as Shaftoe attempts to throw the Germans and Japanese off the scent.

The third principle viewpoint is that of Randy, Lawrence's grandson, who in the near future, travels to the Philippines to set up a data haven, a huge crypt full of computers on which no government has claim, perfect for smugglers, bankers and other clandestine Internet users. As the novel unfolds, Randy discovers more and more evidence of his grandfather's work during WWII and the location of a secret stash of Japanese gold, buried in the retreat from MacArthur in 1945.

These storylines cut unexpectedly and halt each other's flow. As soon as you settle into one character's story and get excited to see what occurs next, Stephenson whisks you off into someone else's head. It'll be another 50 pages before that climax is satisfied or clue revealed.

Other times the climactic battle scene never actually occurs and we are left only with a summary.

But it works and Stephenson can get away with so much of this purely due to his ability as a writer. No matter how many times I reached the end of a point of view section and groaned at the unfulfilled cliff-hanger, the first few sentences of the next storyline hooked me so completely that I'd already forgotten about my complaint and stayed riveted to the new prose. Until the next viewpoint change came along, when I had to live the agony of giving up my storyline all over again.

It shows just how superior a book 'Cryptonomicon' is that one of my only complaints is that Stephenson captured my imagination too well. In some of Lawrence's sections, large swathes of pages are taken up by mathematical formulae and descriptions of how the rudimentary computers he fashions function, but it works. Stephenson manages to make you care and keeps you interested through what would normally be the turnoff to all but the hardest of hard SF readers.

As always, Stephenson's ending lets the rest of the piece down a little. After building conflict and tension to unbearable levels, the climax doesn't quite satisfy. It is perhaps the major casualty of Stephenson's ambitious plots that tying up all the loose ends is all but impossible. However, for me at least, it's the journey through the book that's the most worthwhile part of reading a book by this author.

Once again, Neal Stephenson defies criticism in 'Cryptonomicon'. This behemoth took me ten days to read, a time that only 'Lord 0f The Rings' can put claim to but it was worth every minute. This book has legs and gives all it has got for every page. I, for one, will be first in the queue for Stephenson's new book 'Quicksilver' on its hardcover release later this year.

Tomas L Martin