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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
I haven't read Neal Stephenson or Nicole Galland before but I certainly will be again after finishing this marvellous novel. This tome of a book (over 700 pages) flies along at a pace that has you trying to catch your breath before it reaches it's conclusion leaving you breathless, entertained, amused, awestruck and utterly bewildered (in a good way). It's the story of a plan to bring magic back to the world using scientific time travel but as you can imagine plans never go smoothly, especially when humans and time travel are involved. Told through multiple perspectives using mission briefings, diary entries, letters and memos it is at times a little confusing but stick with it, trust the authors and things do become clear in a most marvellous fashion that won't leave you disappointed.
Enjoyable and creative, though not at compelling and tightly written as Reamde and Anathem. I'd recommend it still, but only if the summary sounds more compelling to you than Stephenson's other works (or you've read all his other great stuff).
This was a really enjoyable book. The explanation of the cessation of magic using quantum mechanics and uncertainty was somewhat believable (given that QM is a pretty weird subject anyway). Most of the characters are interesting and/or likeable, with the exception of the government bureaucrats that are the subject of much of the book's satire, and who are just tiresome. The schemes are pretty farfetched if you stop to think about the potential consequences of changing history, but it makes a nice background for some time travel hijinks, amusing situations, interesting speculations on history and economics and the other digressions you might expect from Stephenson.
I refuse to consider this novel about magic and quantum physics a Stephenson novel. It almost feels like an anti-Anathem book. Maybe I will come back to it when I'm in the mood for some humorous science-fiction, but for the time being I want to read some real Neal Stephenson books, like the Baroque Cycle.
Magic.
Science.
Imagination.
Stephenson.
What else is there to say? Excellent!
Science.
Imagination.
Stephenson.
What else is there to say? Excellent!
Entertaining at first but quickly became evident that, like every other Stephenson book I've read, it could have been half as long. So bloated it felt never ending
Way too long, not a lot happened... I was rather bored.
The epitome of fun - odd, slightly shoddy premise, science and witches, and such a variety of narrative delivery mechanisms (journals, slack chats, letters, etc) - engaging and enjoyable! Just too long
Interesting ideas, but much like his last novel, it feels like he ran out of ideas and just ended it. It just suddenly comes to a halt in a very unsatisfying manner.