Ondrej Urban's Reviews > Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government—Saving Privacy in the Digital Age

If I'm not mistaken, I bought this book at the Computer History museum, in Mountain View, just across the street from Googleplex, about six years ago. When I picked it up this holidays, I might have been feeling a bit tired from all the fantasy I've made my way through recently, but whatever the reason, I was in for a treat.

I can't but make a couple of comparisons between Crypto and Simon Singh's The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography. While both deal with history of cryprography, they deal with different periods (the former focusing on the modern history only). Also, Crypto is a more interesting read, in the sense that it's journalism first, science second type of a deal. It deals with stories of people and deals with metaphors and examples more than actual maths (which never really appears). The style is great, the pacing impeccable and the story built in a solid way. It has clear antagonists (apart from Eve, of course), plot and winners, even includes a kind of a twist ending.

While Crypto will not help you implement your own state of the art cryptographic algorithms, it will offer a lot of knowledge and satisfaction from reading and excellent example of good jornalism.