Books

Octavo, cloth. Of 526 numbered and lettered copies, this copy is marked "PC." "This complex and ambitious cyber-thriller, which begs comparison with Pynchon's GRAVITY'S RAINBOW, features half a dozen well-conceived plot lines. During World War II, the mathematical genius and cryptographer Lawrence Waterhouse, a friend of Alan Turing, is instrumental in breaking the Nazi's Enigma code. Some 60 years later, his grandson Randy, a computer hacker, is involved in setting up a small-scale, but high-tech data haven in Southeast Asia, only to find out that his project has attracted the attention of a number of powerful governments, multinational corporations, and secret organizations. Randy also discovers evidence of a secret conspiracy that may be centuries old." - Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-1075. Locus Award winner. Hugo Award nominee for best novel. A prelude to the author's "Baroque Cycle" of novels. A fine copy in a fine dust jacket. (31886).

Cryptonomicon weaves together multiple narratives spanning different time periods. The book follows the complex stories of the Waterhouse family and their involvement in World War II codebreaking and present-day software development, and the Shaftoe family, whose members include a World War II Marine and a present-day treasure hunter. Interlacing mathematics, cryptography, philosophy, and technology, Stephenson crafts a complex and engaging tale.