Cryptonomicon
by Neal Stephenson · first published 1999
51% recommend41% neutral8% critical
Why HN recommends it
Fun, sprawling techno-thriller mixing WWII codebreaking at Bletchley Park with a modern startup story, with sharp humor and tech-savvy detail. Suits programmers and fans of long, idea-heavy fiction.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Neal Stephenson hacks into the secret histories of nations and the private obsessions of men, decrypting with dazzling virtuosity the forces that shaped this century. In 1942, Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse - mathematical genius and young Captain in the US Navy - is assigned to Detachment 2702. It is an outfit so secret that only a handful of people know it exists, and some of those people have names like Churchill and Roosevelt. The mission of Watrehouse and Detachment 2702 - commanded by Marine Raider Bobby Shaftoe - is to keep the Nazis ignorant of the fact that Allied Intelligence has cr
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Tangent, but Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson[1] is a good novel that touches on WWII cryptography topics really well, going decently mathematically deep into the mechanics of how they work. I'm about 75% of the way through. [1]:…
on “Unbroken Enigma Message” ↗Or you could read Cryptonimicon, which is a lot slower, but more fun: http://www.amazon.com/Cryptonomicon-Neal-Stephenson/dp/00605... Startups and science fiction... that book is a favorite of mine.
on “Today I Briefed Congress on the NSA” ↗I'm reading Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson for the third time, and understanding it more than the second time. It has wonderful technical digressions that seem aimed precisely at geeks/hackers. In fact, on the the main characters…
on “What are you reading?” ↗If this article piqued your interest, be sure to read Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson.
on “The codebreaker who saved 'millions of lives'” ↗If you are interested in that sort of thing, I highly recommend the novel Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson - it is partly about the activities of a joint British/American counterintelligence unit whose mission is to make sure the Axis does not figure out that the Allies have broken their…
on “Don't want your laptop tampered with? Just add glitter nail polish” ↗Good to see Alan Turing getting his due. There's a great book about what was happening during WWII there called Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. It's about a lot more than that, but a good chunk is about Bletchley Park. It's a fictionalized account, but I'd highly recommend it to the HN crowd that is interested in Turing,…
on “Bletchley Park – Google Search” ↗I'm not going to self-nominate myself as 'bright', but I liked these 3 books when I was 14ish: What do you care what other people think? by Richard Feynman. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. Flatland, by Edwin Abbott.
on “What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?” ↗Two books come to mind (while excluding the obvious absolute classics like Neuromancer (William Gibson) and Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson): "Cryptonomicon" by Neal Stephenson. It goes from WW2 to modern time. "Cyberpunk" by Katie Hafner - Read it aeons ago so working from long term memory. 3 real world stories of famous hackers and their "crimes" (Kevin…
on “Ask HN: Recommendations of good cybercrime novels?” ↗I haven’t read that one but another science fiction book I read a couple of years ago after seeing it mentioned on HN a few times is Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. If you feel like reading another science fiction book in the future I recommend that you read Cryptonomicon. It was a good book that had a lot to offer.
on “What our science fiction says about us” ↗…Difficult Conversations, by Douglas Stone. It's possible that my life is 10-20% easier since I read it, with zero hyperbole. It's not a breezy quick read, but my favourite sci-fi is always likely to be Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson.
on “Ask HN: Recommend one book I need to read this summer?” ↗…civilsation-destroying puzzle. Diaspora, by Greg Egan -- Post-trans-humanist shenanigans. Other things of note: Neal Stephenson writes a lot of cyberpunk computer-adjacent fiction. Snow Crash, Diamond Age, and Cryptonomicon all come to mind. The Baroque Cycle is a fiction series about the beginnings of computation and cryptography. He does have a propensity to navel-gaze though. Vernor Vinge was a computer science professor.…
…Seconding Dune, which is a classic for a reason, and Stranger in a Strange Land (though I think The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a better place to start with Heinlein). Also Neal Stephenson, though I'd suggest Cryptonomicon over Diamond Age.
on “Ask HN: I only read tech/business books – recommend me some fiction?” ↗…note, but comes off very different (to me at least): Coders at work http://www.amazon.com/Coders-Work-Reflections-Craft-Programm... I'm more of a fiction kind of guy so I'll have to recommend this: Cryptonomicon http://www.amazon.com/Cryptonomicon-Neal-Stephenson/dp/B004R... (The kindle edition is more than the paperback but if you do want to travel light the kindle edition will definitely be worth the extra…
on “Ask HN: Hacker book suggestions similar to founders at work” ↗Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, while maybe not the "best" book ever written, is highly entertaining...
on “Ask HN: What is the best fiction book you've ever read? ” ↗There is also a really good book called Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson that has a lot to do with Bletchley Park and WW2 in general. Less informative but more entertaining.
on “Cryptanalysis of Enigma” ↗