Show some fucking adaptability!

I have talked a lot about Cryptonomicon. In fact, it is probably the book I have mentioned the most in this blog. Not only is one of my favorite books, but it has turned into an obsession to really understand this book. The author himself said how he wanted to make historical-fiction extremely realistic, historically and technically. Stephenson went ahead, did his research on both World War II and the history of computing, and used it as the background for his story of hidden gold, encryption and math. The first time I read the book my impression was that it was a hilarious hack and slash, intelligently written adventure. The author wouldn't shy away from spending dozens of pages explaining the proper way to eat Captain Crunch or the effects of horniness during war.
I read the prequels, The Baroque Cycle, and after finishing the whole business, I decided to do some research, and re-read the whole series.

My opinion of the book has changed. Cryptonomicon is a historical-fiction work of genius. The pace and exposition of the books was made assuming that reader had thorough knowledge of the technology and history of the eras; reading it this time through it was a lot more interesting.
What is it about? Well, during WW2, there was a guy named Lawrence Waterhouse, a mathematician, organ-pipe player, friend of Alan Turing and cryptographer for the Allies. Bobby Shaftoe is the gung ho, morphine-addicted, nipponese-killing Marine of the act-first-think-later kind. "Show some fucking adaptability!", he would say. With the mysterious Enoch Root, they get involved into a complicated adventure revolving around submarines, German gold, prime numbers and the Leibniz Archives. Braided in that story there is the mid 90's timeline revolving around Randy Waterhouse and his start-up company trying to connect the South Pacific with bits, data havens, e-money and the treasure hunter Amy Shaftoe. Its themes and characters are all related to the prequel The Baroque Cycle in a very strong manner, and will make you wonder how does a creative process that spans more than 4000 pages among all four volumes (Cryptonomicon + All three volumes of The Baroque Cycle) could be so tightly connected.

I'm not going to pretend that the book isn't a challenging read, but if these topics are of some interest to you, and you can make the commitment required, get your brain busy with history and even some equations, do it. You will not regret it.

Now, I'll have to start to do my research for the prequels: Quicksilver, The Confusion and The System of the World.

Semper Fidelis
Dawn star flares on disk of night
I fall, sun rises
-Bobby Shaftoe