description: With this extraordinary first volume in what promises to be an epoch-making masterpiece, 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.1942: Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse, mathematical genius and young Captain in the U.S. Navy, is assigned to Detachment 2702, commanded by Marine Rider Bobby Shaftoe. 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. Detachment 2702's mission is to keep the Nazis ignorant of the fact that Allied Intelligence has cracked the enemy's fabled Enigma code.Fast forward to the present, Waterhouse's crypto-hacker grandson, Randy, is attempting to create a "data haven" in Southeast Asia -- a place where encrypted data can be stored and exchanged free of repression and scrutiny. As governments and multinationals attack the endeavor, Randy discovers a massive conspiracy with roots in Detachment 2702 linked to another unbreakable Nazi code called Arethusa. And it will represent the path to unimaginable riches and a future of personal and digital liberty...or to universal totalitarianism reborn.
language: English
title: Cryptonomicon
titlecomplete: Cryptonomicon
characters: Robert Shaftoe, Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse, Rudolf von Hacklheber, Douglas MacArthur, Alan Turing, Earl Comstock, Enoch Root
genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Historical, War, Thriller, Cyberpunk, Science Fiction Fantasy, Novels, Historical Fiction, Fantasy
ratings_count: 110466
places: Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, England, The Philippines, Southeast Asia
series: Crypto
awards: awardedAt: 946713600000
name: Hugo Award
category: Best Novel, awardedAt: 1357027200000
name: Prometheus Hall of Fame Award, awardedAt: 946713600000
name: Locus Award
category: Best Science Fiction Novel, awardedAt: 946713600000
name: Arthur C. Clarke Award, awardedAt: 946713600000
name: Prometheus Award
category: Best Novel
publisher: Audio Literature