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Code of Conduct by Kristine
Smith
kcl 07 March 00 |
What an odd, grand book! The cover and the cover blurbs are misleading - it is an SF adventure starring a document librarian, a galactic empire that has elevated bureacrats to royalty, and a clash with an alien culture. The human/alien interactions remind me of C. J. Cherryh but the document handling parts remind me of those couple of years I spent in DLB! |
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| Between Silk and
Cyanide by Leo Marks
kcl 10 March 00
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.A true story of World War Two as fought by the British code makers and code breakers, as told by Leo Marks who was in the middle of it all. One of the best descriptions of the way an intelligence agency works (and the typical ways it screws up) that I've ever come across. Even if you don't think you care about cryptography, this is a book that makes you care about the people using the craft to as a war weapon. |
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| Cryptonomicon by Neil Stephenson
tpv 10 March 00
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This book may be characterized as a cross between "Between Silk and Cyanide" and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance . You need not have read the latter, but the book will make more sense if you read the former first. It is a fictionalized account of things that could well have happened during WWII and its consequences roughly around now. It focuses on (1) the other half of the action described in Silk and Cyanide, that is the activity at Bletchley Park and its ounterparts in the US and Australia; and (2) on the goings on in the Philippines and its environs. Yes, it all comes together at the end which is 918 pages from the beginning. It is a gripping tale of cryptography, war, and their aftermaths. Well worth reading, but first read Between Silk and Cyanide, if you have not done so already. |
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