Genre
Speculative fiction
Setting and Context
WW2, around the world and late 1990s in the Sultanate of Kinakuta
Narrator and Point of View
Third Person point of view, following multiple characters.
Tone and Mood
Hopeful, informal, and engaging. Stephenson matches his writing style to the person he is writing about.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Andrew Loeb is the antagonist, Bobby Shaftoe, Lawrence Waterhouse, Randy Waterhouse and Goto Dengo are the major protagonists
Major Conflict
During the WW2 storyline, the war, with characters participating, creates conflict.
In the 1990s storyline, the character's descendants try to build a data haven on an island, and various characters attempt to stop them, because of what happened in the WW2 storyline on that island.
Climax
The climax happens when in the 1990s storyline Andrew Loeb begins to attack Randy.
Foreshadowing
The book is full of foreshadowing, in the sense that the 1990s storyline is full of descendants from the 1940s storyline The characters have similar personalities and motivations.
Understatement
Lawrence Waterhouse uses understatement frequently throughout his storyline, for example, calling Alan Turing's work, "a lot more advanced," than his own, which is untrue considering their work on cryptography.
Allusions
Randy Waterhouse interprets people by comparing them to Lord of the Rings characters
Imagery
"However, it is cast in a solid ingot from a hundred pounds of iron and fed by 420-volt cables as thick as Waterhouse’s index finger."
Stephenson uses precise imagery to describe the state of technology at the time, in this case an office intercom.
Paradox
Enoch Root doesn't seem to age.
Parallelism
The characters in both story lines are related to one another.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
"He is a son of a bitch who hates the Corps, sir! He is trying to get us all killed, sir!"
When Bobby Shaftoe describes Douglas MacArthur, he doesn't mean he hates the Marine Corps, he means that he hates Marines.
Personification
None
