[emsal]

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]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptonomicon

[anonymousisme]

I read it again last year and picked up on a few things that had slipped past my understanding the first time around. I had originally assumed that the present day Enoch Root was the child of Bobby's Nordic girlfriend, but it was obviously not the case upon my second reading. A few web searches revealed the supernatural nature of Root.

I always wondered if Stephenson chose the name "Enoch Root" on a dare, or maybe he has some other story. It's probably something related to an "Enterprise NOC Root" computer account.

[knowaveragejoe]

Enoch is a character in multiple biblical stories:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enoch_(ancestor_of_Noah)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enoch_(son_of_Cain)

[mercurialshark]

Yes and when Neal was asked about Enoch during a speaking appearance, he noted that Enoch was one of the first people in the bible whose death wasn't recorded/noted. Apparently, most people early in the bible that were mentioned had both birth/death notated. At some point they stopped bothering with so many new parties introduced and he was one of (if not the) first to not have their story/death brought to a conclusion.

[mark242]

Enoch Root is a pretty interesting guy. You should read the Baroque Cycle series to get a little bit of his backstory.

[robbiep]

He's also in Dodge

[teilo]

Specifically: "Fall, or Dodge in Hell"

The Waterhouses also appear in that novel.

It is the sequel to Reamde.

[egl2020]

"...the child of Bobby's Nordic girlfriend..." does have a role in the modern-day episodes (probably). I didn't figure this out until my second or third reading.

[tomjen3]

A great book. If you want to explorer some of the same themes I recommend his Baroque cycle, which carries on with other characters that are the current charecters distant ancestors.

[lallysingh]

If you enjoyed Cryptonomicon and like Stephenson, don't read the Baroque cycle. Skip his work forward until Reamde.

[LMYahooTFY]

Serendipitous, I'm also about 75% of the way through!

It's one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. Perhaps the most.

I very highly recommend it, though I imagine much of HN's audience has done so or is at least aware of it.

[3001]

Please reply your take when you are 99% of the way through

[killion]

I had the exact same thought. There is no feeling like the frustration of a disappointing ending after being engrossed in a Neal Stephenson book.

When they were paper books at least you could throw them across the room. Now that would break my phone.

[kkylin]

I haven't been disappointed by the endings of his more recent novels: Cryptonomicon, Anathem, Seveneves. (I did not enjoy time spent on REAMDE, that being the only exception.)

[jgon]

Of those 3 I was only somewhat happy with Anathem. I couldn't finish REAMDE and Seveneves convinced me that I may not read another one of his books again, unless it debuts to unanimous critical acclaim or something similar. I thought the ending of Cryptonomicon was pretty weak but the rest of the novel leading up to it was so fantastic that I didn't care. Honestly I found the Baroque Cycle to have the best ending of any of his works, and I would describe it as the one time I was happy with both the journey and the destination of a Stephenson novel.

[kkylin]

Of those three I was initially least interested in reading Anathem. Maybe as a result, I was most pleasantly surprised by it. Agree that none of these compare to the Baroque Cycle.

[wrs]

Seveneves was frustrating because he spent hundreds of pages setting up a premise worthy of an entire lifetime’s worth of books and then just...stopped. Any other author would write that book and be set for life. Neal Stephenson has no time for that and just moves on to the next pile of ideas in his notebook.

[dharmab]

I've devoured several of his books multiple times but could not finish REAMDE.

[kkylin]

Yeah, I kinda forced myself through that one. Not sure it was a good decision.

[robbiep]

I read Reamde after Dodge and it made a lot more sense

[kkylin]

That's interesting. I haven't read Dodge. Thanks!

[ridruejo]

Share your frustration. This one did not disappoint me though

[InTheArena]

I loved the ending to the baroque cycle, but otherwise. Yeah. This.

[comboy]

It's .. fine.

To me NS books are not much about the plot though. I'm floored how many things that guy knows and how creatively he connect them.

[emsal]

That's true, I don't even remember the ending to Snow Crash which I read some ~6 years ago. The unraveling premise that comes about in the ~3rd quarter of the book is what stuck with me. Think it'll be the same for Cryptonomicon.

[LMYahooTFY]

I've finished it. I thoroughly loved it. I don't want to go into any spoiling detail if you haven't read it?

It's only been some hours, so I'm honestly still processing a lot of it. I'll definitely be rereading it. It's considerably grander in scale than Snow Crash, his only other Novel I've read so far, but I'm quite excited to read his other novels.

[rjknight]

I'm also 75% of the way through... my fourth read-through. It's notable how my opinion of the major characters changes each time I read it.

[odiroot]

The audiobook narrated by the author is just hilarious.

I was alternating reading with listening for fun.