Cryptonomicon by Stephenson

World War II spy activity, modern-day (ok, ten-year-old) tech excitement, wacky characters and some wacky math thrown in for good measure. This pretty much sums up Cryptonomicon, written by Neal Stephenson in 1999.

I have to say that for the first 20% or so of the book I wasn't particularly interested in any of the characters or plotlines. The beginning is a bit tedious for my taste*, and quite honestly most of the characters aren't immediately likable. It's more of an ensemble cast but perhaps the main character is Randy Waterhouse, an educated computer guy who lives in California with an academic girlfriend, some really geeky friends, and the kind of "whatever" attitude so common to middle-class white dudes living in California, and I never really connected with him. However, the episodic nature of this book (it flips back and forth between WWII and 1990s) made it easy reading for public transport so I stuck with it.

Later on I found myself almost missing my stops and reading at other times too. The plot is really cool and some of the characters are a lot more interesting than they first seem. Of course some plot twists are a little ridiculous but on the whole I found this to be an exciting and interesting read.

This is the first Stephenson novel I've read, and I am surprised how much I liked it.  Usually, I can't stand long-winded authors and this man definitely likes to write long books.  I'm planning to check out others of his in the future.

*I must fess up to uncomfortability when authors try to sneak popularized mathematics into otherwise fine novels - and I am a mathematical cryptographer so it's not a matter of understanding.