I first read Cryptonomicon more than 20 years ago, when it first was released. A good friend of mine was visiting from the US – I lived in London at this point – and had a copy of the book in his satchel.

It sounded cool, and so I found a copy, read it, and while there was a lot I didn’t understand in it, I enjoyed the hell out of it, which was quite remarkable because at the time I wasn’t really into 1000-page epics.

I figured it had been long enough that I should revisit: to see a) if it was still as impressive and b) whether I understood it any better.

The intervening two decades, it turns out, had been kind. Not only had I actually been to some of the places mentioned in the book, but I recognised that my grasp on military history and geopolitics had improved somewhat in the interim.

Cryptonomicon is, essentially, an alternate history set in two time periods: the 1940s and the 1990s. (Or should that be two alternate histories? Anyway, soldiering on.) The reader is thrown between the Second World War – the Pacific part of that armour-plated stoush, particularly – and the dot-com boom. The narrative plays out through the adventures of characters separate to each timeline (though some cross generations), with plenty of real-life figures (Albert Einstein, Alan Türing and an excellent Douglas MacArthur, amongst others) to add some kind of feeling of factual truth.

To read more of this review, please visit www.captainfez.com/2023/01/22/book-review-cryptonomicon.