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arkobla 's review for:
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.
by Nicole Galland, Neal Stephenson
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O is an interesting and enjoyable novel about Time Travel. It doesn't weigh itself down with the self doubt of what happens when they muck about in the time streams (although their are ramifications) but instead enjoys the premise that there is a way to travel back and forth in Time.
Fundamentally, the book isn't about Time travel however, its about the discovery that witches actually existed until a certain point in time and then all witchcraft went away abruptly. That discovery prompted development into new technology, that allowed for limited spells by the lone remaining witch, and led to going back and forth in time to advance their departments mission.
As the small team has success, it gets consumed by the government bureaucracy and an underlining current of the novel is how the author pokes fun of this trope. Everything is an acronym, which tends to be a bit confusing at first until you just know what it means by the context of the sentence - and, after working in a military environment for 20+ years, this is exactly what happens. I've had plenty of conversations with folks about what an acronym means only to be told they have no idea exactly what it stands for, but they know what it means. Same thing here.
I really enjoyed the two main characters - Mel & Tristan. Their story arc's were satisfying and enjoyable. They, like all characters in the novel, are more cavalier about messing with time than most readers might believe, but its consistent with the rules of the world we are reading.
As they both begin traveling in time, trying to solve various challenges, we meet more characters that become important to the overall story. Soon enough, there are a glut of characters never become too much a burden to deal with.
I might have given this novel 4 stars for some small nitpiks in the story, but what really made it shine was the Audible version I listened to. Ultimately, there were 10 different POV characters (With Mel being the primary and most used). For the Audible version, each of these 10 characters had a different reader chosen specifically to represent the new character. Some of these readers are outstanding!! I enjoyed Mel's reader very much, but Grania, an Irish Spy from the 1600's was a pure joy to listen to.
As we move forward in the novel, as more bureaucracy overlays the group, the author uses a back and forth discussion between characters as they are using email or a chat program, with each reader reading their parts. This style might be confusing in text, but was really fun via audible.
As you would expect, everything explodes when things don't go as planned and our heroes have to figure out a way to recover. In the end, its a fun romp.
Fundamentally, the book isn't about Time travel however, its about the discovery that witches actually existed until a certain point in time and then all witchcraft went away abruptly. That discovery prompted development into new technology, that allowed for limited spells by the lone remaining witch, and led to going back and forth in time to advance their departments mission.
As the small team has success, it gets consumed by the government bureaucracy and an underlining current of the novel is how the author pokes fun of this trope. Everything is an acronym, which tends to be a bit confusing at first until you just know what it means by the context of the sentence - and, after working in a military environment for 20+ years, this is exactly what happens. I've had plenty of conversations with folks about what an acronym means only to be told they have no idea exactly what it stands for, but they know what it means. Same thing here.
I really enjoyed the two main characters - Mel & Tristan. Their story arc's were satisfying and enjoyable. They, like all characters in the novel, are more cavalier about messing with time than most readers might believe, but its consistent with the rules of the world we are reading.
As they both begin traveling in time, trying to solve various challenges, we meet more characters that become important to the overall story. Soon enough, there are a glut of characters never become too much a burden to deal with.
I might have given this novel 4 stars for some small nitpiks in the story, but what really made it shine was the Audible version I listened to. Ultimately, there were 10 different POV characters (With Mel being the primary and most used). For the Audible version, each of these 10 characters had a different reader chosen specifically to represent the new character. Some of these readers are outstanding!! I enjoyed Mel's reader very much, but Grania, an Irish Spy from the 1600's was a pure joy to listen to.
As we move forward in the novel, as more bureaucracy overlays the group, the author uses a back and forth discussion between characters as they are using email or a chat program, with each reader reading their parts. This style might be confusing in text, but was really fun via audible.
As you would expect, everything explodes when things don't go as planned and our heroes have to figure out a way to recover. In the end, its a fun romp.