Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson.

My big brother loaned me this book ages ago, insisting that I read the sections about a fictional island off the coast of Britain where the inhabitants produce very strong-smelling, itchy woolens and speak a language unlike any other on the planet, and fight horrid fights with their compatriots over nothing that makes sense to any outsiders.

I think, just maybe, he was teasing me about knitting, learning dead languages, and Celtic history.

I’ll forgive the (good natured) slight, of course, because he ended up getting me to read a Sci-fi/historical novel that I never would have found or deigned to read under other circumstances.

Gentle reader, I am a book snob.  I can’t help it–I’m very picky, and a reading life is pretty short when you consider that about 1,000,000 new books are printed every year, and there are billions of books out there in the world, and I just can’t read them all with two eyes and one brain.  To get me to read historical novels, fantasy, or sci-fi, you have to convince me beyond any measure of doubt that the book is completely and utterly awesome.   And if the book IS completely and utterly awesome, I will believe you more quickly the next time you try to get me to read one of the risky genres.  David gave me the Hobbit when I was a little kid, so he earned some points. 

So, yes, Cryptonomicon is completely and utterly awesome.  It’s about cryptography, of course.  The plot hops from WWII Allied crypto programs to 1990s web-crypto folks and back again.  The plot is frenetic but interesting, the math and science are, as far as I can tell, accurate.  The history is good.  The main characters are endearing.  And Stephenson is funny.  He stuffs an incredible amount of plot into the book, which tops out around 1,000 pages, but I never found the thing boring.  There’s good v. evil; intrigue; trivia; history; pith and vim and vigor and such; true love; geeks portrayed as good mates and friends; and, to spoil only one tiny bit of the plot . . . . kimodo dragons.  I heart kimodo dragons.  That earned some extra points for the author.

It’s not perfect–my brother’s first edition copy was riddled with typos, and I couldn’t correct them because it wasn’t my book.  And there are a couple of plot points that need help (a character dies, and then reappears with no explanation of his apparent resurrection).  And Stephenson should hire a tougher editor, preferably one who is a bit smarter than him when it comes to grammar, punctuation, and brevity.   Still and all, it’s officially a  completely and utterly awesome book on my scale, and I’ll probably read it again. 

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