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adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A very fun reread! I bumped up the score half a star simply because even though it’s a super long book it didn’t read like one and flew by
This book could have easily been a 5 star read if the length were cut in half.
Beginning = great
Last 10% = great
Vast majority of the middle = completely unecessary
It took me the better part of a month to finish this, which might be a record for me.
Beginning = great
Last 10% = great
Vast majority of the middle = completely unecessary
It took me the better part of a month to finish this, which might be a record for me.
Yeah, this was too long and had waaaayyyyyy too many incongruous elements. A really complicated set up is created to explain how the military is able to develop this time-travel device - requiring a gigantic amount of space, sub-zero temperatures, etc. Until suddenly it doesn't, and it can be reduced in size.
Right off the bat, all the stupid acronyms were annoying not fun or funny. The various narrators/ points of views worked well except when it didn't, namely the endless military reports I could barely bring myself to look at at all. I don't think I missed anything there. It's all set up for a sequel, which I won't be reading.
Right off the bat, all the stupid acronyms were annoying not fun or funny. The various narrators/ points of views worked well except when it didn't, namely the endless military reports I could barely bring myself to look at at all. I don't think I missed anything there. It's all set up for a sequel, which I won't be reading.
Before I begin, note that I'm a huge Stephenson fan. I've read all of his stuff (novels, short stories, essays, etc.) many several times over. And, of course, I know that this is a satire, social discourse, and so on...
But beyond this book being an entertaining yarn with some acceptable character development, my positive comments must end.
The dialog was lame, the story was stilted, the scenes/times were sparsely described, and the ending poised for a sequel... Oh, and it was horribly sexist... It took all of my will power to make it through this book, and that says a lot considering my love of Stephenson's past works.
To me, this felt like an attempt to modernize Patchett's Discworld series with a quasi-Gaiman twist.
I hope people don't just rate this one highly because they're fan boys and girls.
But beyond this book being an entertaining yarn with some acceptable character development, my positive comments must end.
The dialog was lame, the story was stilted, the scenes/times were sparsely described, and the ending poised for a sequel... Oh, and it was horribly sexist... It took all of my will power to make it through this book, and that says a lot considering my love of Stephenson's past works.
To me, this felt like an attempt to modernize Patchett's Discworld series with a quasi-Gaiman twist.
I hope people don't just rate this one highly because they're fan boys and girls.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
I loved the storyline! It was such a fun adventure, I generally love Neal Stephenson’s writing, and ‘time-travelling academics’ is one of my favourite subgenres. BUT I am knocking off an entire star because one of the characters, Gráinne, speaks in the worst, most over-the-top stage-Irish dialect I’ve seen outside of Victorian literature. It was incredibly distracting, and my heart sank every time I got to one of her sections. I cannot believe this book had two whole authors and neither of them thought to run this dialogue past an actual Irish person. I feel so conflicted about this book, because otherwise it was a ton of fun, but every scene with Gráinne was painful to read.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
This is quite possibly my favorite book I've ever read. It has all my favorite things: time travel, magic, sassy witches, and a dash of history (not too much). I read all 740 pages of it in 2 days.
adventurous
funny
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book managed to make magic the most boring concept. It moves at a snail’s pace with nothing much happening except for party tricks for the first part of the book. There is no sense of urgency, and the author’s fail to establish any sense of why we should care that these experiments are being pursued. The characters are bland, hardly even caricatures who supposedly have this unspoken sexual tension. This supposed tension is a classic example of showing not telling. There is no evidence other than Melissa and a few other characters commenting on their “romantic potential”. So far the best character is Rebecca, but that’s not saying much when she’s hardly in the book.
Very little actually happens in this book. In fact, nothing interesting happens until the last 100 pages of the book. I get that they are trying humorously poke fun at over the top government projects, but it’s exhausting and frankly boring to read. This is no exciting adventure. It’s more an exercise in frustration. Too much time was spent on constructing clever different ways of delivering the story to the extent that the actual story lacks appeal. I’m aware that this is book is meant to act as an extensive redacted case file, but there’s a reason why case files aren’t often read like novels. Because they’re not fun to read. Also, the end basically reads the way the beginning of this novel should have begun. Long story short, I did not like this book one bit.
Very little actually happens in this book. In fact, nothing interesting happens until the last 100 pages of the book. I get that they are trying humorously poke fun at over the top government projects, but it’s exhausting and frankly boring to read. This is no exciting adventure. It’s more an exercise in frustration. Too much time was spent on constructing clever different ways of delivering the story to the extent that the actual story lacks appeal. I’m aware that this is book is meant to act as an extensive redacted case file, but there’s a reason why case files aren’t often read like novels. Because they’re not fun to read. Also, the end basically reads the way the beginning of this novel should have begun. Long story short, I did not like this book one bit.
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O (hereby just Dodo) is the most brilliant blend of sci-fi and fantasy/specifically witches, that I've ever experienced. Unfortunately, it definitely feels more sci-fi than magical. The book also puts together a fun ragtag team, time travel, a sketchy government organization, a lot of bureaucracy, quantum physics, schrodinger's cat, a family of bankers as old as forever, and some pretty loveable characters.
As I was reading this tho, and describing the story to my husband... I suddenly had the thought "What... Is the plot?"
Reader, there was none. Until like the last fifty pages. The rest of the book is (to be fair) as described on the cover: the rise and fall of the time travel government organization. The plot is to watch a ragtag team of two, turn into to four, turn into five, turn into to hundreds. And once it turns into the hundreds, there is more red tape, more bureaucracy, and more punchable characters.
That being said.... It was still fun! It's timey wimey! It's science-y! There is the tiniest pinch of romance (like 0.0001% of the book)!
I also enjoyed that every chapter was from different perspectives and formats, from interviews, to diaries, to reports, to email communications, and recorded audio (though I recognize some might hate that). The characters were ok? The witches in particular, I was particularly fond of, just cause I like witches. But at a certain point there were too many characters and too many acronyms. Storyline was pretty straightforward though even though there was a lot of time hopping!
- - - - - - - - - ❤️ - - - - - - - - -
FEW TINY SPOILERS BUT WILL NOT RUIN THE PLOT AHEAD.
I did have a few questions though... Why is Tristan a one-man team who apparently starts of with endless funds but then magically has none? The whole story starts off with the MC Mel stuck in 1800s London and she is recounting the events up until that point. Reader, it was a fucking lot kind of hard to believe she wrote basically a whole book while complaining about not having enough time or ink or paper.
As I was reading this tho, and describing the story to my husband... I suddenly had the thought "What... Is the plot?"
Reader, there was none. Until like the last fifty pages. The rest of the book is (to be fair) as described on the cover: the rise and fall of the time travel government organization. The plot is to watch a ragtag team of two, turn into to four, turn into five, turn into to hundreds. And once it turns into the hundreds, there is more red tape, more bureaucracy, and more punchable characters.
That being said.... It was still fun! It's timey wimey! It's science-y! There is the tiniest pinch of romance (like 0.0001% of the book)!
I also enjoyed that every chapter was from different perspectives and formats, from interviews, to diaries, to reports, to email communications, and recorded audio (though I recognize some might hate that). The characters were ok? The witches in particular, I was particularly fond of, just cause I like witches. But at a certain point there were too many characters and too many acronyms. Storyline was pretty straightforward though even though there was a lot of time hopping!
- - - - - - - - - ❤️ - - - - - - - - -
FEW TINY SPOILERS BUT WILL NOT RUIN THE PLOT AHEAD.
I did have a few questions though... Why is Tristan a one-man team who apparently starts of with endless funds but then magically has none? The whole story starts off with the MC Mel stuck in 1800s London and she is recounting the events up until that point. Reader, it was a fucking lot kind of hard to believe she wrote basically a whole book while complaining about not having enough time or ink or paper.