Bound together by the thread of cryptography, this novel ranges across the years from the breaking of the Enigma codes to freedom and security on the Internet. It is Stephenson's deft handling of the characters that carries the plot along, rather than the dialogue and the plot, making this both a great historical thriller and an homage to cyberculture. Definitely an author to watch Neal Stephenson hacks into the secret histories of nations and the private obsessions of men, decrypting with dazzling virtuosity the forces that have shaped the past century. He weaves together the cracking of the Axis codes during WWII and the quest to establish a free South East Asian 'data haven' for digital information in the present.
