BOOKS
HISTORICAL TECHNO-THRlLLER
A Cryptonomlcon . ' Neal Stephenson (William Heinemann £12.99) ewe-k Z-I- . . - . - Waterstone’s Edinburgh
MON WEST END
LORD DOUGLAS
9% HURD
' Ten Minutes To Turn the Devil TUE EAST END NOV NIALL DUTHIE
7PM JAMES ROBERTSON Lobster Moth
WED EAST END 1 0 GESHE KELSAN G
NOV
_7 PM GYATSO Alternative Health Evening
mu CAFE ROYAL 11 ORAL EVENING
' 55 NOV , 7°30PM CAFE ROYAL Code to nowhere: Cryptonomicon TUE
Not so much a book as a literary doorstop, this multi-stranded tale marries 1 6
the current explosion in computing science with its historical birth in the
code-breaking of World War Ii. NOV RYMAN
As a modern computing company races to establish a huge memory vault 7PM in a tiny Pacific state - and on the way uncovers details of a huge cache of stolen Japanese gold - so the characters in the strands race to bury the THU D FREE bullion and break each other's codes. . I) I
There's no denying the breadth of scope in the ideas Stephenson is trying
to tackle here, but he does not manage to do so in any way which rises NOV
above the trite. Which does not stop it being a thrilling read; just don't W I expect too much which has not been tackled with more sophistication and greater wit in Iain Banks's The Business - for the computing advances - or
Thomas Pynchon's Gravitst Rainbow - for the government cover-ups and TU E E M B M S cock-ups. Where Stephenson does excel is in the complicated plotting, which echoes f3/f2
back and forth between the two eras, and gradually reveals to the reader
the arcane science of computing. The rare success of Cryptonomicon is to _N_OV_ D 7 I popularise mathematics, cryptology and computing science. 7PM But clever as he is at wielding his storylines, Stephenson’s characters will conform too much to the reader‘s perception of a computer nerd’s wet dream. And the story of Pearl Harbour, submarines, bullion and secrets THU D could have been lifted from Boy’s Own. (T horn Dibdin) 2 5 & Cryptonomicon is published on Thu 4 Nov.
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professional malpractice. Here, the discovery of a dead Scott’s fiction centres upon a very mountaineer leads to yet more current moral debate: namely whether fatalities before the horrible truth can . . patients in hospitals can trust that come to light. Tumfi” W WWW WE“ branch. doctors will, at all times, have their As unlikely as it seems for a crime 83 George Street, Edlnburgh best interests in mind. The author's thriller to have a social conscience, [C13 0131 225 3436 personal pursuits — medicine, Stronger Than Death has a heart, West End, 128 Princes Street, Edinburgh horseriding and climbing pervade the while other books of its type aim tel; 0131 226 2666 novel, but she writes about these purely for shock value. (CB) East End 13-14 Princes Street Edinburgh often technical worlds with a skill that o , ’ i I . . tel. 0131 556 3034/5 eaves her readers powerless to resrst. Continued over page
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