--- begin forwarded text Resent-Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 18:25:11 -0500 Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 15:22:15 -0800 (PST) From: Christopher Allen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: SF books Resent-From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Resent-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Wed, 24 Mar 1999 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > Vernor Vinge (Fire Upon the Deep) and Bruce Sterling (Islands > in the Net) are two authors who have influenced how wearable > researchers think about their science. Each has a new book: I don't know if this has wearables in it, but Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash), the author who gave us "gargoyles," will have a new book out in May called "Cryptonomicon." Summary here: http://www.avonbooks.com/avon_user/book.html?book_id=39336 -Chris -- Subcription/unsubscription/info requests: send e-mail with subject of "subscribe", "unsubscribe", or "info" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Wear-Hard Mailing List Archive (searchable): http://wearables.blu.org --- end forwarded text CRYPTONOMICON Neal Stephenson, writer U.S. $29.50 / CAN $39.50 Hardcover Imprint: Avon May, 1999 ISBN: 0-380-97346-4 Category: Fiction; Sub-Category: Thriller Pages: 928 With this extraordinary first volume in what promises to be an epoch-making masterpiece, Neal Stephenson hacks into the secret histories of nations and the private obsessions of men, decrypting with dazzling virtuosity the forces that shaped this century. In 1942, Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse - mathematical genius and young Captain in the U.S. Navy - is assigned to detachment 2702. It is an outfit so secret that only a handful of people know it exists, and some of those people have names like Churchill and Roosevelt. The mission of Watrehouse and Detatchment 2702-commanded by Marine Raider Bobby Shaftoe-is to keep the Nazis ignorant of the fact that Allied Intelligence has cracked the enemy's fabled Enigma code. It is a game, a cryptographic chess match between Waterhouse and his German counterpart, translated into action by the gung-ho Shaftoe and his forces. Fast-forward to the present, where Waterhouse's crypto-hacker grandson, Randy, is attempting to create a "data haven" in Southeast Asia - a place where encrypted data can be stored and exchanged free of repression and scrutiny. As governments and multinationals attack the endeavor, Randy joins forces with Shaftoe's tough-as-nails grandaughter, Amy, to secretly salvage a sunken Nazi sumarine that holds the key to keeping the dream of a data haven afloat. But soon their scheme brings to light a massive conspiracy with its roots in Detachment 2702 linked to an unbreakable Nazi code called Arethusa. And it will represent the path to unimaginable riches and a future of personal and digital liberty...or to universal totalitarianism reborn. A breathtaking tour de force, and Neal Stephenson's most accomplished and affecting work to date, CRYPTONOMICON is profound and prophetic, hypnotic and hyper-driven, as it leaps forward and back between World War II and the World Wide Web, hinting all the while at a dark day-after-tomorrow. It is a work of great art, thought, and creative daring; the product of a truly icon Read reviews for CRYPTONOMICON. Bard | Eos | Mystery | Romance | Goners | Young Readers Home | How to Order | Events | Search ©1998 The Hearst Corporation. Parental guidance suggested. Inquiries may be forwarded to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'