Customer Reviews

Cryptographer

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Cryptographer, by Tobias Hill, is not so much about a cryptographer as about a woman trying to understand the cryptographer. That the subject is a cryptographer is not particularly relevant, apart, perhaps, from his natural tendency to behave cryptically. All that matters is that he has power and money. He is money.

In the Globe and Mail, cryptographer John Law is likened to Gatsby, but he is not quite so pathetic or tragic.

The Guardian sums up the novel well, though I think it is mistaken in calling it "a thriller, however poetic and elliptical." The novel throbs with an underlying intrigue, but there is never a quickening of the pulse.

According to the Telegraph, "The plot lacks depth or plausibility." I have to agree. Maud Newton didn't like it at all, but I think it has some merit.

It is a character study. The book offers some insight into money, particularly into people who work with money without having any per se. Anna Moore, tax inspector. She carries on her side a balance of a kind of power, a sinister but moral intimidation, only The Revenue wields.

Though the relationships between characters ring true and resolve as it seems they must, they are riddled with elisions. Hill uses a poet's trick of using empty spaces to give the content meaning, but I found myself working too hard to fill in the blanks. For example, while Anna has occasional obligatory dinners with her sister where they are as conversationally distant as strangers, there remains a "sisterliness" in their dialogue that I credit more to accident (and my ability to read between the lines) than to Hill's skill.

Anna's relationship with John Law starts nicely, but evolves not plausibly at all. Their initial conversation, believably, is imbued with innuendo. They engage in a dance of flirtatious contact over months. That a year later this woman might construe this as love and pursue him to the ends of the earth is just silly.

The prose is elegant, but the plot is a Prufrockian missed opportunity. http://magnificentoctopus.blogspot.com

Hard to believe that I just read a romance novel, but this one had a title and storyline that grabbed my attention. The girl Anna falls for a wealthy (and married) cryptologist whose children and work prove far more important than the money he's earned. Ultimately, the cryptographer must make a sacrafice and Anna must make a decision on whether she can truly trust the man she admires. The story is suspenseful and told in smooth and rapid style that had me finishing the book in one sitting aboard plane from Amsterdam to Capetown.

This book had an interesting cover image (which seems to bear no relation to the story and which seems to not be on the US edition that I'm reviewing here) and some of the information on the back looked promising, so I gave it a go. I probably shouldn't have bothered as it was not the book for me.

Anna Moore works for the Inland Revenue and her job is to inspect some of the bigger clients. John Law is the `big client' of big clients - it turns out he's the richest man in the world as he invented a software form of currency - Soft Gold - which has eventually replaced real currency. Anna discovers that Law has been siphoning off some money into an account for his son which has not been taxed; she confronts him and he pays up. But for some reason she finds herself unable to let go and she continues to study him and his family, eventually uncovering the fact that Law and his son are terrified that the supposedly unbreakable code in Soft Gold has a security flaw. Eventually it's hacked, Law has to go into hiding, Anna finds him and then goes home again. And the book ends.

It's a well-written book if you like those written in the present tense (and I don't!) and if you like the sort of conversations between characters which mean you haven't got a clue what's going on. It's meant to be a love story but the two `lovers' hardly meet and when they do they seem to speak in riddles. Who knows why Law likes her - I suppose his power and money might be an attraction to her, but it's not very clear. The ending disappointed me as it just seemed to fizzle out.

I expect some people would find this book brilliant but it just didn't work for me.

I don't know if 'stream-of-consciousness' writing is part of the style of contemporary writing these days but I do know that writing this way in 'The Cryptographer', Tobias Hill darn near put me into a state of unconsciousness.

For example, Tobias Hill presented us Anna Hill as a Tax Investigator who doubts her clients plenty, her doubting being part of the reason why she is so good in her job. Then we have to follow Anna as she 'uhms' and 'ahhs' her way through 200 pages, in pursuit of a man who might or might not be a criminal mastermind, and whom she is at the same time a bit in love with him. Sounds promising? It only sounds, that's the problem. And I tell you, despite flashes of brilliance here and there - Tobias can be good in creating very real, very interesting characters - this still goes wayyy too deep inside a character's head, or under his skin - whatever you want to call it. And besides, interesting characters are not enough. It could be better written. I could be less exasperated.

Anna Moore is a thirty-six year old tax inspector living in London in the year 2021. As she states at the beginning of the story her job is to measure the worth of people. Her new assignment is to investigate the world's first quadrillionaire, John Law, also known as the Cryptographer because he invented a cashless currency called Soft Gold which is protected by an inviolable code.
Soon Ann meets the man and confronts him with evidence of false accounting but John Law readily accepts to repay the revenue what he owes them.
From then on Anna is more and more fascinated by the man, by his great aura, by his mysterious mansion hidden behind a great wall and by his wife and two children. As Soft Gold is heading towards disaster and John Law's empire is about to crumble, Anna's feelings for him remain genuinely sincere because they are much less liable to sudden shift than the greatest fortune on earth.

I have just finished this book and have immediately begun rereading it for the pure enjoyment of Hill's poetic descriptions of even relatively mundane situations, objects, experiences. I hope, on the second read, to fully comprehend the story. That I didn't "get it" on the first read bothers me not at all; nor if I never "get it".

If you enjoy someone using the English language with rare skill, give it a try. You will know after the first page whether it's for you or not.

I find it interesting that another book whose ending I never "got", even after a second, very enjoyable reading, also involved cryptography, i.e., Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. It's an entirely different kind of book but equally brilliant.

FWIW: I rarely read books twice.

I loved this book. I loved the subtle romance and the determination of the chief characters. This was the first of Hill's books I'd read (my Mum had recommended it highly - neither of us could put it down) and I was so impressed I immediately went out to read another. It turned out to have a similar plot - but that didn't detract from this wonderful read. I highly recommend it.

This book is supposed to be a suspense novel - it was nothing of the sort! It was one of the most dry books I've ever read, and I had to force myself to finish it! I could have cared less what happened to these characters - as long as SOMETHING would happen!

The book I bought also was curiously absent of any Chapter dividers. At first it was just weird, but as I continued to read, it just became so monotonous that the walls of endless text with no breaks, just became a torture!

If you are thinking about buying this book - I hope you are facing a life sentence in prison - because that is the only place you will find this book worth your time!