Book review: Cryptonomicon

I've been reading this book forever.

Part of the reason was the 900+ page length, but more important was the fact that I had no drive to pick it up and read it.

Not that Cryptonomicon is a total loss...there are plenty of good qualities about it. To start, it's very interesting. If you are a math geek or a history buff (I'm both), this book contains fascinating and detailed information about cryptanalysis and WWII. Even more importantly, that information is mostly accurate! The author is believeable writing about zeta functions, perl scripts, or the jungle fighting of New Guinea. It's fiction, of course, so the battle to retake Corregidor has been altered drastically to provide a heroic role for one of the main characters, but he weaves together characters and events that actually occurred.

Additionally, it's very funny. When Alan Turing propositions the naive main character at the beginning of the book, his description of the offer made me laugh out loud. The chuckles continue right up to the end.

But the geekiness and the humor just weren't enough to carry me through 900 pages. There's not a single developed character and no real plot to speak of. It's basically a 'slice-of-life' piece with three main characters...interesting slices of life, to be sure, but there's no impending climax driving the reader to turn the next page. There's no connection to any of the characters. I felt nothing as some succeeded wildly and others died heroically.

Cryptonomicon was the best written and funniest history book I've ever read. As a novel, though, I wouldn't recommend it.