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Title: Full of ideas, short on plot, loads of fun!
Review: This book jumps around among multiple characters and multiple times, focusing on crytography during WW2 and the late 1990s. Even so, it is easy to follow. The characters are engaging, the history is interesting, and the book is often hilarious. There is lots of math and computer geekiana, but this doesn't serve as an impediment, even to a reader, like me, with only superficial knowledge of and interest in these things. It's a physically huge book, even in its smallest, mass-market version, but it's still a quick read. At the end, I had trouble summing up the plot, then decided I didn't care. It was a wild ride, and one with a much more satisfying ending than Stephenson's previous novels Snow Crash and The Diamond Age.
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