Sunday 14 November 2010 :: by Thierry Gagnon

Cryptonomicon, by Neil Stephenson (1999)

A geek-a-liscious literary experience

It’s World War II and the allies have cracked the encryption of a major Axis communication codes. How can they act without revealing their access to this precious intelligence? Detachment 2702, a rag-tag group of soldiers and intelligence agents, is dispatched to create believable (and hilarious) alibis to justify why German and Japanese convoys keep getting sunk.

A geek-a-liscious literary experience

It’s the late ’90 and the grand-children of two Detachment 2702 members are part of an IT start-up venture in the Philippines. The discovery of a sunken WWII German submarine filled with gold leads to a set of encrypted punched cards that may contain the location of an even bigger Japanese war treasure hoard.

This genre defying novel is in fact a mashup of many stories: a WWII spy action, a harrowing death camp escape, a modern-day treasure hunt yarn, a philosophical mathematics treatise and a high-finance techno thriller. All of these narratives are tied together with a profound insight into geek culture and an unbridled glee for hyperbole of hysterical proportions.

See the full article on Webstyle Magazine (webstylemag.com)