''PopCo'' is a 2004 novel by British author

Scarlett Thomas Scarlett Thomas (born 5 July 1972 in Hammersmith) is an English author who writes contemporary postmodern fiction. She has published ten novels, including '' The End of Mr. Y'' and '' PopCo'', as well as the ''Worldquake'' series of children's ...

. The book addresses several mathematical topics.

Plot

It tells a story of twenty-nine-year-old Alice Butler, a quirky, fiercely intelligent loner with an affinity for secret codes and mathematics. She works for the huge toy company named PopCo, where she creates snooping kids' kits - KidSpy, KidTec and KidCracker. At the company conference Alice and her colleagues are brought into developing the ultimate product for the teenage girls.

Reception

The novel has been compared to ''

Cryptonomicon ''Cryptonomicon'' is a 1999 novel by American author Neal Stephenson, set in two different time periods. One group of characters are World War II–era Allied codebreakers and tactical-deception operatives affiliated with the British Govern ...

'' by

Neal Stephenson Neal Town Stephenson (born October 31, 1959) is an American writer known for his works of speculative fiction. His novels have been categorized as science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk, and baroque. Stephenson's work explores mathemati ...

, with similarities including a buried treasure subplot and flashbacks to

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and Bletchley Park estate, estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire), that became the principal centre of Allies of World War II, Allied World War II cryptography, code-breaking during the S ...

. A review in the journal of the American Mathematical Society praised its "subversive and lively style". A review in ''The Independent'' praised "the weight of ideas and downright chutzpah crammed into this book." Another review in ''The Independent'' described it as "a big, zeitgeisty novel that free-associates in the way that only cyberpunk science-fiction used to be able to do. It is such enormous fun, and so peppered with sharp observations and satirical jabs, that it gets away with editorialising patches nda certain hastiness of composition". A review in ''The Guardian'' described it as "awkward" but ultimately enjoyable. However, another review in ''The Guardian'' found it "clumsy", writing "Thomas cannot decide whether she is writing a boarding-school adventure or a dystopic tale of global corporations." A review in the ''Daily Telegraph'' wrote "its adolescent earnestness and its morally fibrous manifesto can make for queasy reading." ''PopCo'' was a 2004 book of the year in '' Time Out'' and ''

The Independent on Sunday ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...

''.

References

2004 British novels Novels about cryptography Postmodern novels HarperCollins books {{2000s-novel-stub