Cryptonomicon

Cryptonomicon
by Neal Stephenson
read: 2004
Guardian 1000 Novels

I read Cryptonomicon abroad, on a dare, and mostly while ill.  A co-worker had just finished it and said it had taken him a year.  I said I could read it in two weeks and took it with me to England.  I got sick one weekend and read 500 pages or so, which is about half of it, and was able to finish it not too long after that.

I liked the book.  I've read two Stephenson novels and both have some pretty didactic digressions that make it seem like fiction is just a platform for him to write about topics he finds interesting: mostly cryptography in this case, but he also pontificated on technological development in the Philippines, Van Eck phreaking, sexual deviance, and anti-Genocide resistance.  These tangents don't always have anything to do with the main story, but they're some of the most interesting and vivid scenes in my memory.