Cryptonomicon by Neal StephensonMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
2.5 stars?
If you are really into mathematics or a cryptography enthusiast, this is the book for you. There are pages devoted to solving physics problems. I skimmed those. TL;DR. Thankfully, Stephenson is a good writer and wrote amusingly of other things too. Also, if you are an Alan Turing fan, he is an influential character in this novel and you maybe would read it for his presence.
This book, for me, was an awful lot of reading for very little joy. I'm not enamoured of WWII novels, nor am I a fan of mathematical equations and graphs in fiction, so this was a poor choice for me and I only slogged onwards because it was part of my list of popular science fiction and fantasy titles. And I stubbornly wanted to know the ending. I was engaged enough to want to sort out how the descendants of the men who participated in the war finally resolved things. I confess to being underwhelmed by the finale.
For the right reader, this would be an excellent book. I believe people who enjoyed Gravity's Rainbow might also like this.
Book number 419 of my Science Fiction & Fantasy Reading Project.
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