esrosedotblog

CRYPTONOMICON

I have stumbled upon a new book marathon project. Neal Stephenson is a phenom with some major works behind him; the word cyberpunk has been used but I will eschew it. NS is in the middle of a huge trilogy of which the second volume has been completed. On a leap of faith I ordered a few of his books and have started the one published previous to the trilogy, the title of which is emblazoned in the heading. I am already deep into it at (I know, it is laughable) only 24 pages!

I have laughed a lot, been seriously challenged mentally (some mathematic theory), figured that real people are intertwined (Alan Turing, who has already been outed and found to be a great guy, even if he is a homo), and realized historic events imbedded in a shocking way. The time frame happens to be my present life-span. I have gasped once; not quite out of my chair but I had grabbed the arms and was an inch out of the seat before I stopped myself. So I am stuck. My experience is that if a book does this to me in the very beginning it is going to do a whole lot more.

Oh. That symbol is the alchemist's gold. And I know, when I come upon something like this, I feel a bit like someone who has arrived at a surprise party in his honor. I now await people to jump out from behind the furniture telling me they already read this, know all about it and that I am a welcome latecomer to the party. OK.

I am relieved to have made a leap out of the sword and sorcery stuff which I have really enjoyed for several years but was running out of interest in. I was getting worried I would not find another place to put my attention; the dark before the dawn. I had even considered re-reading some things. Then this. Aha! Eureka! And so on. And oh, does anyone want to read along with me? John is looking askance and we only have one copy. He and I usually do serial, not parallel, comparisons; that way we get to relive it.