Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
Interesting premise but the level of detail is teeeeeedious. Wish it had moved along.
Loved every minute of this. It was smart, funny, and just overall charming. It's not too often that magic, science, and time travel collide in a coherent way so bravo to the author for really thinking through the rules of the various systems and applying them uniformly throughout the book. The stakes were believable because there were consequences to the meddling these characters were doing, and they continued to occur throughout the book. While plots of this nature very much lend themselves to boilerplate characters (the rakishly handsome military officer, the mysterious witch, the awkward scholar, etc) all of these characters behaved like real people. So while Melisande had a few awkward moments around her crush, she is totally confident and in her element when it comes to her work. Best of all, romantic subplot is pretty minor and is not the main, or even secondary focus of the story. I hate it when the fate of the world is at stake but the story is more concerned with the heroes smushing their parts together (insert eye roll). I was hoping this would be a one and done, but it was so well written I'm not mad about having a sequel to look forward to.
A solid three and a half. Fun time-travel thriller with witches.
This is the only time that bureaucracy has been enjoyable!
Like many of his books, great premise, but it goes a bit off the rails
I don’t think that I will ever like anything as much as I liked Snowcrash. But this was pretty flawless.
SPOILERS!
OMG HOW DID MEL GET BACK AND HOW DID MORTIMER GET THAT NOTE THERE AND WHAT IS GRAINNE DOING EVEN?!
Also, I def knew Rebecca Este-Oda was going to be a witch. I just knew it.
This book was SUPER fun to listen to. I’m not entirely sure what happened all the time. And there was so much to take in. But the play like quality of the story was so fun and funny! Science meets magic. Science is magic. Loved it.
OMG HOW DID MEL GET BACK AND HOW DID MORTIMER GET THAT NOTE THERE AND WHAT IS GRAINNE DOING EVEN?!
Also, I def knew Rebecca Este-Oda was going to be a witch. I just knew it.
This book was SUPER fun to listen to. I’m not entirely sure what happened all the time. And there was so much to take in. But the play like quality of the story was so fun and funny! Science meets magic. Science is magic. Loved it.
Stephenson returns to the fun and pacing of works like Reamde and Snowcrash. Total fun! Magic, time travel, and supercomputers - what could go wrong? ;-)
Co-author from Mongoliad added depth and breadth to characters and narrative. A romp!
Co-author from Mongoliad added depth and breadth to characters and narrative. A romp!
As complicated and tightly woven as any Stephenson story, packed full of reports, emails, messages, etc. Told mostly in one long diary, it holds together cohesively, and less important or interesting sections are summarized to keep the story from dragging. There's a lot of time travel, and several groups working towards the own goals, with some hints about what's coming, as the main part is told from a vantage point of the future.
Packed full of adventure, history, language, paradox, magic, and a smidge of romance, it's an engaging read.
Packed full of adventure, history, language, paradox, magic, and a smidge of romance, it's an engaging read.