Name: Hannah Swithinbank's review of The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson
Item: The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.
Rating: 4
Author: Hannah Swithinbank

Neal Stephenson

Nicole Galland

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! Goodreads Choice Awards Semifinalist! From bestselling author Neal Stephenson and critically acclaimed historical and contemporary commercial novelist Nicole Galland comes a captivating and complex near-future thriller combining history, science, magic, mystery, intrigue, and adventure that questions the very foundations of the modern world. When Melisande Stokes, an expert in linguistics and languages, accidently meets military intelligence operator Tristan Lyons in a hallway at Harvard University, it is the beginning of a chain of events that will alter their lives and human history itself. The young man from a shadowy government entity approaches Mel, a low-level faculty member, with an incredible offer. The only condition: she must sign a nondisclosure agreement in return for the rather large sum of money. Tristan needs Mel to translate some very old documents, which, if authentic, are earth-shattering. They prove that magic actually existed and was practiced for centuries. But the arrival of the scientific revolution and the Age of Enlightenment weakened its power and endangered its practitioners. Magic stopped working altogether in 1851, at the time of the Great Exhibition at London’s Crystal Palace—the world’s fair celebrating the rise of industrial technology and commerce. Something about the modern world "jams" the "frequencies" used by magic, and it’s up to Tristan to find out why. And so the Department of Diachronic Operations—D.O.D.O. —gets cracking on its real mission: to develop a device that can bring magic back, and send Diachronic Operatives back in time to keep it alive . . . and meddle with a little history at the same time. But while Tristan and his expanding operation master the science and build the technology, they overlook the mercurial—and treacherous—nature of the human heart. Written with the genius, complexity, and innovation that characterize all of Neal Stephenson’s work and steeped with the down-to-earth warmth and humor of Nicole Galland’s storytelling style, this exciting and vividly realized work of science fiction will make you believe in the impossible, and take you to places—and times—beyond imagining.

A Novel

The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.

Alex Roland

You think you know how the world works? Think again. From bestselling author Neal Stephenson and critically acclaimed historical and contemporary commercial novelist Nicole Galland comes a captivating and complex near-future thriller that questions the very foundations of the modern world. From #1 New York Times bestselling author Neal Stephenson and critically acclaimed novelist Nicole Galland comes a captivating and complex near-future science fiction thriller that calls into question the very foundations of the modern world. A young man from a shadowy government agency; an upstart academic at an Ivy League university - together they begin to uncover a secret that will change the world's view of the past, and determine the future of humanity.

Dodo

Hannah Swithinbank

Definitely a minor in the Stephenson/Stephenson & canon, but a minor in a lightweight key and I enjoyed it plenty. There’s a whole subplot at the end that I could have lived without, unless it is definitely heading for sequel-dom. Even so #DODO is into its Vikings like the Baroque Cycle was into Jack Shaftoe’s pirating. And I could stand less of both. Still, there was a lot of fun stuff and clever ideas about history and time, and it’s nice to read a book that swamps you up.

Anyaconda

It started out great and I was really interesting but then it started to slog in the middle and it got kind of boring and repetitive. I skim read after page 400 and skipped a few reports. The ideas and explanations were absolute bomb, but the script, diary and note style didn't work for me (although I love multimedia books). This was my first Neal Stephenson, I'm definitely going to try another book of his.

From bestselling author Neal Stephenson and critically acclaimed historical and contemporary commercial novelist Nicole Galland comes a captivating and complex near-future thriller combining history, science, magic, mystery, intrigue, and adventure that questions the very foundations of the modern world. When Melisande Stokes, an expert in linguistics and languages, accidently meets military intelligence operator Tristan Lyons in a hallway at Harvard University, it is the beginning of a chain of events that will alter their lives and human history itself. The young man from a shadowy government entity approaches Mel, a low-level faculty member, with an incredible offer. The only condition: she must sign a nondisclosure agreement in return for the rather large sum of money. Tristan needs Mel to translate some very old documents, which, if authentic, are earth-shattering. They prove that magic actually existed and was practiced for centuries. But the arrival of the scientific revolution and the Age of Enlightenment weakened its power and endangered its practitioners. Magic stopped working altogether in 1851, at the time of the Great Exhibition at London’s Crystal Palace—the world’s fair celebrating the rise of industrial technology and commerce. Something about the modern world "jams" the "frequencies" used by magic, and it’s up to Tristan to find out why. And so the Department of Diachronic Operations—D.O.D.O. —gets cracking on its real mission: to develop a device that can bring magic back, and send Diachronic Operatives back in time to keep it alive . . . and meddle with a little history at the same time. But while Tristan and his expanding operation master the science and build the technology, they overlook the mercurial—and treacherous—nature of the human heart. Written with the genius, complexity, and innovation that characterize all of Neal Stephenson’s work and steeped with the down-to-earth warmth and humor of Nicole Galland’s storytelling style, this exciting and vividly realized work of science fiction will make you believe in the impossible, and take you to places—and times—beyond imagining.

Cindy Lieberman

I'm a big fan of Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash, Baroque Cycle, Anathem, Cryptonomicon in particular), but this book was not even as good or memorable as Reamde. It also felt as long but without the diverse storylines of Reamde that came together so well at the end of that tome. 

This story -- of magic and time travel -- was both thin and over played. Perhaps the intended audience is reading about time travel for the first time ("But why can't we go back and kill Hitler?") or new to science in general (thus, an overlong description of Schrodinger's cat/thought experiment). 

What did work well were the deadpan memos, emails and texts that provided humorous glimpses into the inevitable changes that occur as a company grows from a start-up to an international concern. The audio book version was well produced with a number of narrators.

Emily Netherland

The title best describes the book itself: a rise and fall.

At 750 (!) pages, this novel proved to be a monster read. Loosely following the diary or “Diachronicle” of one of the main characters throughout, Melisande Stokes and Tristan Lyons seek to bring magic back to modern times. In this world, magic went extinct with the first photograph of a lunar eclipse in 1851, and now countries around the world are attempting to bring magic back in order to change the present.

The novel does not fall into my usual genres, but I found it at a thrift store and thought the blurb on the back seemed exciting. 100 pages in, I was ready for it to be over. The middle half of the book, pages 250-600, could have been removed entirely or split into two volumes. The various forms of storytelling (letters, memos, messages on a government server, diary entries, profiles) detracted from the overarching plot and I lost the feeling of urgency. Although it was interesting to hear from multiple POVs, I lacked a complex understanding of the character whose diary we read throughout – Melisande.

Written by two authors, the areas where arguments on style or differences in writing are evident. Half of the book wants to do one thing, while the other is moving in a different direction. Additionally, the complexity of language distracts the reader and the introduction of unnecessary acronyms and plot make for a confusing read. I also feel that if I paid more attention, there would be several plot holes and conclusions that don’t make sense. All this said, however, the overall construct of the world and the creative plot are well done.

Exciting (towards the end)? Yes. Would I recommend? No.

You think you know how the world works? Think again. From bestselling author Neal Stephenson and critically acclaimed historical and contemporary commercial novelist Nicole Galland comes a captivating and complex near-future thriller that questions the very foundations of the modern world.

Rob Brogan

I read this on Kindle and Audible. I think the Audible cast did a great job and it was nice to have multiple narrators for this. Having said that, I read most of the book without the audio. 

Overall, the book was a tad different than what I normally get out of Stephenson, but perhaps that's due to being co-authored. I usually enjoy (except when I don't) his long and detailed tangents into a topic I usually know nothing about. In Sevenenves, or Anathem, I find myself delighted with some actual real knowledge on a subject despite the books fictional plot. This book has a little bit of the explainer-tangent that often comes with Sci-Fi, but I would say it's more like a TV show explainer than the usual Stephenson mini-lecture. For some people, that extra layer of detail is what they love or hate about Stephenson, so that makes this book either better or worse than his others - depending where you stand on that. 

I think I prefer the more detailed explainers, but I wasn't disappointed by this book. It was a truly interesting mix of science and magic, as well as his typically huge scope of time.

Jeremy Cote

I thought this was a great book. Definitely on the longer side, but the mix of different formats was fun to read through. The premise was interesting, though perhaps not something that would stand to too much scrutiny. I found the characters to be great, and overall I enjoyed the book.

Les Reynolds

Took a really long time to not really go anywhere, but it was a fairly enjoyable diversion, and it ended pleasantly.

Bryan Alexander

A very entertaining time travel romp.

D.O.D.O. concerns the invention of a US secret service dedicated to witchcraft through time travel. It manages to do a bunch of things at once:
-a romance
-time travel stories
-bureaucratic satire
-blending fantasy and science fiction
-grand comic scenes (I comment you all to "The Lay of Wal-mart")
-geopolitical scheming

Nicole Galland is a fine collaborator for Neal Stephenson. I haven't read her work before, but now I intend to. She leavens Stephenson's infodumpery with entertaining dialog and plotting. This makes his technical focus stronger, I think.

D.O.D.O. does have some issues. Its treatment of religion is very hands-off, a long-standing problem for Stephenson. Basically it appears rarely and at a remove, never taken seriously except as one anthropological datum. Sex is also downplayed, again typically. Several characters' motivations change without good reason (for example, (view spoiler)[Grainne switches from anti-England to pro-magic-in-the-21st-century) (hide spoiler)] and one major actor is massively underexamined ((view spoiler)[the Fuggers, who seem to drive much of the plot (hide spoiler)]). 

But it's a very entertaining read. Recommended.

Alex Roland &
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson

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The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson