+Resource blog
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Kirk A.'s Recommendation for the 510 Club | May 2024
As the twentieth century fades, Randy and his tech startup friends help to build a data haven in the Southeast Asian republic of Kinakuta, a mission that draws seedy investors like flies. This is all claimed to be done to increase shareholder value, but Avi, Randy’s paranoid business partner is actually trying to prevent the Holocaust from ever happening again. They join forces with some treasure hunters to defraud some of their more unseemly investors.
Intertwined with this is the WWII story of the hijinks of Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse (Randy’s grandfather) and USMC Corporal Bobby Shaftoe – sometime members of Detachment 2702, a dirty tricks squad trying to prevent the secret of the Allied codebreaking successes from being guessed by the enemy. They cross paths with various Nazis (card-carrying and otherwise); Goto Dengo, mining engineer and loyal servant of the Emperor; Enoch Root, mysterious and seemingly immortal; and the drawn from real life Alan Turing, Hermann Göring, Admiral Yamamoto and General MacArthur.
This is a hilarious adventure, written in a style that reminds me of Catch-22. It has been one of my favourite books ever since I first read it soon after publishing, an introduction to an author who is worth trying out. He is known for being unafraid to break away from the narrative and lurch off into a long and technical exploration of some mathematical or scientific idea, a habit you will no doubt either love or find deeply annoying. The book is packed with cultural references that you can either research further or just let slide over you and assume the meaning from the context. No knowledge is needed before reading, but if you’re anything like me, you will come out with a fascination for codebreaking, Enigma machines and Bletchley Park. If you want more once you are finished with Cryptonomicon, there is the Baroque Cycle, a trilogy featuring the ancestors of some of the main characters.
WHAT IS THE 510 CLUB?
The 510 Club is named after the Dewey Decimal classification for Mathematics. It is a book recommendation project facilitated by Mathateca that is published in the monthly Christchurch MathsJam newsletter and on the Facebook page. Each month we feature a mathematical book recommendation, whether that’s a novel, articles / essays, a puzzle book, textbook, biography... just as long as it features maths in some way. Read the above book at your leisure then feel free to comment your thoughts below, or come along to the following Christchurch MathsJam sessions to join in an informal maths/book chat with the reviewer.
We're always looking for suggestions! If you're interested in contributing a book rec one month, please email christchurch@mathsjam.com to sign up.
