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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
Tiiiiiiiiiime travel & giant novel that only sets up the next novel = two things I can't stand. Two stars because obviously a biased opinion (redundant? Implied in "opinion"?) and I guess it was well done?
In 1851 magic was extinguished , but now a Harvard linguistics expert, and mysterious, military agent make a discovery that could bring it back. Science, time travel, and magic, with lots of humour, this book is a great deal of fun. I think I have found another book to suggest to fans of The Rook and Stiletto.
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Loved it. I could have listened to this one forever, on infinite strands.
Wasted potential. Relentless, irritating, chirpy humour like a maiden aunt's first attempt at live blogging a cruise. Tiresomely repetitive jokes about workplace bureaucracy. Barely any plot stretched out over a long book. As a big fan of Neal Stephenson, I'm used to excessive length, divergence, exposition, some clunking dialogue and patchy characterisation. But he usually compensates with interesting ideas, some even serve as historical or technological education and for for all the pages of build up there's usually something exciting around the corner. This never delivered on ideas or action. I wish I could time travel and tell myself to skip this one.
Neil Stephenson launches himself and co-author Nicole Galland into the growing sub-genre of what-if-magic-was-real. It's one thing to write about how our world blurs at the edges into magical worlds (Hurakami). It's quite another to have specific character consciously able to work magic.
The authors approach the topic as Stephenson has does so well in so many books: they create a scientific and historical context in which magic existed. Witches throughout historical, and perhaps prehistoric times, practiced magic, passed it down mother to daughter through the generations. Stephenson and Galland partly describe scientifically how witches do magic, and extensively work through how magic once applied can alter history here and there. At first, I thought, late to the game and derivative, but the book brings a wonderful touch to the topic and also works on other levels.
The story focuses on why we no longer have magic in the present, when and why it stopped, and what can the at first ragtag cast of characters do about it.
The authors tell the story from several points of view, mostly contemporary Harvard scholar of ancient languages Melisande Stokes, Grainine, a historical witch from a couple centuries ago, and Rebbecca East-Ota, who gets drawn into the adventure. Other characters also regularly make entries; it's those three that move the story forward. Sometimes books that jump from one vantage point to another seem choppy, or just transparently building tension. In this case, all passages in the book are written as documents collected in some internal documentation system, the source of which gradually emerges. And at least in the hardcover version, a different look in the text. I am not sure the book would be as much fun in an ebook format. In any event, the reader becomes the after the action reviewer of extensive project documentation. I loved it.
Given the predominance of the women characters, it was great that Stephenson teamed up with Galland. (They previously worked together on some other books I don't remember as well.) The partnership worked seamlessly. In some of his writing, Stephenson has not done as well with his female characters as his male ones. In this book, the reader sees Stephenson's distinctive wit and manic pace, and also have women characters coming alive and carrying the weight of the narrative.
And wit the book has. Each character has a distinctive voice: blog post, diary, internal memorandum. These blend with transcribed auto recording of company chat or video monitoring, personnel policies on culture, sexual harassment, internal security, documentation of the technology created. As the book slowly marches toward the inevitable crisis, the humor grows. You know a true disaster looms. You smile at the stupidity or venality some of the characters, such as Stoke's faculty head Blevins and Washington types, pushing everyone to the brink. You see core conflict among humorously ambitious science, quietly powerful magic and relentless history heading toward explosion. This makes the story stand out among stories in this genre.
The foibles of the military and political types is funny, perhaps reflects Stephenson's libertarian sensibilities, yet unfortunately plausible and cautionary for our present era.
The story has a touch of romance between Stokes the scholar of ancient languages and Lt. Lyons, intentionally overdrawn male military figure and physicist. You figure its going to happen, just a matter of when and how. Even that has self-conscious wit about it, almost like Harrison Ford Raiders of the Lost Ark movies: with the characters at hand, tension and conflict has to give way to romance.
The authors also offer detailed and convincing historical interludes, with everything from a contemporary Irish perspective on Shakespearean theater, life in early colonial Boston, the Jewish community in 1200 Constantinople as it faced the 4th Crusade, to the ambitions Viking mercenaries to dominate Europe and the everything else. Lovely.
I got into this faster than other recent Stephenson novels. And the good news, I suppose, after 700+ pages, is that the book sets us up for an inevitable sequel. Enjoy.
The authors approach the topic as Stephenson has does so well in so many books: they create a scientific and historical context in which magic existed. Witches throughout historical, and perhaps prehistoric times, practiced magic, passed it down mother to daughter through the generations. Stephenson and Galland partly describe scientifically how witches do magic, and extensively work through how magic once applied can alter history here and there. At first, I thought, late to the game and derivative, but the book brings a wonderful touch to the topic and also works on other levels.
The story focuses on why we no longer have magic in the present, when and why it stopped, and what can the at first ragtag cast of characters do about it.
The authors tell the story from several points of view, mostly contemporary Harvard scholar of ancient languages Melisande Stokes, Grainine, a historical witch from a couple centuries ago, and Rebbecca East-Ota, who gets drawn into the adventure. Other characters also regularly make entries; it's those three that move the story forward. Sometimes books that jump from one vantage point to another seem choppy, or just transparently building tension. In this case, all passages in the book are written as documents collected in some internal documentation system, the source of which gradually emerges. And at least in the hardcover version, a different look in the text. I am not sure the book would be as much fun in an ebook format. In any event, the reader becomes the after the action reviewer of extensive project documentation. I loved it.
Given the predominance of the women characters, it was great that Stephenson teamed up with Galland. (They previously worked together on some other books I don't remember as well.) The partnership worked seamlessly. In some of his writing, Stephenson has not done as well with his female characters as his male ones. In this book, the reader sees Stephenson's distinctive wit and manic pace, and also have women characters coming alive and carrying the weight of the narrative.
And wit the book has. Each character has a distinctive voice: blog post, diary, internal memorandum. These blend with transcribed auto recording of company chat or video monitoring, personnel policies on culture, sexual harassment, internal security, documentation of the technology created. As the book slowly marches toward the inevitable crisis, the humor grows. You know a true disaster looms. You smile at the stupidity or venality some of the characters, such as Stoke's faculty head Blevins and Washington types, pushing everyone to the brink. You see core conflict among humorously ambitious science, quietly powerful magic and relentless history heading toward explosion. This makes the story stand out among stories in this genre.
The foibles of the military and political types is funny, perhaps reflects Stephenson's libertarian sensibilities, yet unfortunately plausible and cautionary for our present era.
The story has a touch of romance between Stokes the scholar of ancient languages and Lt. Lyons, intentionally overdrawn male military figure and physicist. You figure its going to happen, just a matter of when and how. Even that has self-conscious wit about it, almost like Harrison Ford Raiders of the Lost Ark movies: with the characters at hand, tension and conflict has to give way to romance.
The authors also offer detailed and convincing historical interludes, with everything from a contemporary Irish perspective on Shakespearean theater, life in early colonial Boston, the Jewish community in 1200 Constantinople as it faced the 4th Crusade, to the ambitions Viking mercenaries to dominate Europe and the everything else. Lovely.
I got into this faster than other recent Stephenson novels. And the good news, I suppose, after 700+ pages, is that the book sets us up for an inevitable sequel. Enjoy.
Decent but too much moralising
While DODO is an enjoyable tale that is told from many perspectives as is increasingly common with the first author's books it is full of American moralising, conspiracy theiries, and ’punishment of ’ evil’ characters and rewards to ’good’ characters.
While DODO is an enjoyable tale that is told from many perspectives as is increasingly common with the first author's books it is full of American moralising, conspiracy theiries, and ’punishment of ’ evil’ characters and rewards to ’good’ characters.
This was a fun and slightly over-the-top blend of science fiction and fantasy. In a world where magic has already died out, a government organisation uses obscure physics to create a small chamber in which a witch could still use magic. Time travel ensues. The adventure is kind of zany and the characters are lively.
Ok—first off this book was long. I don’t know if reading the kindle version made it longer because some pages were 2-3 kindle pages, and it took forever. It was also metaphorically long in parts—meaning it seemed to drag. Then it would get exciting and become a page turner. When it was good it was a 4 then it would drop to a 2 or 3. So ultimately it’s a 3.5.
Enjoyable enough. I'm not usually a fan of books about magic, but this one is treated with enough tongue in cheek so it was still quite enjoyable. One trope that I am beginning to hate in sci-fi novels is the obsession with acronyms. D.O.D.O. is the new poster child of this phenomenon. Stephenson is at a disadvantage because I read this just after finishing Craig Alanson's Expeditionary Force series, and this was a pain point for me there too.