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

Executive Summary: I found the first half of this book a bit on the slow side, but thing really picked up in the second half. 3.5 Stars.

Audiobook: This book has a ton of narrators. I found that very confusing for the first half of the book. I think (but I'm not certain) that the majority of the book Tavia Gilbert, who was fantastic.

I'm generally skeptical of so many narrators, but it worked well with how it was used here. Most of them had much smaller parts, but it definitely added a little extra to the book. Overall I think audio is a great option for this book.

Full Review
I've read several books by Mr. Stephenson, and I've enjoyed most of them. This one isn't quite the typical Stephenson book, possibly because he has a co-author. Much like some of his other books it's a blend of sci-fi, fantasy and historical fiction.

Unlike most of his other books, I didn't feel this one was prone to tangents. He does spend a fair bit of time early on explaining how time travel works, and how D.O.D.O was created however. I did find this part a bit slower than the second half. Maybe I just enjoying watching the world burn?

I've never read anything by Nicole Galland, and it's hard for me to pick out where she was writing. Maybe she kept him in check on the tangents? The history part did seem pretty well flushed out, and from what I've read that seems to be her area of expertise. The narrative style felt very much like any other Neal Stephenson book to me. I didn't seem to have quite the same sense of humor than I recall from other books however.

I thought the characters were quite good, especially the main two Melisande and Triston. With all the time travel we got a lot of interesting characters from various time periods too.

Another standard Stephenson trait of this book was the in-depth explanation of how Time Travel was possible. He did it with a bent to physics that seem plausible enough to me, but I've taken all of two semester of physics more years ago than I'd like to think about, so I'm sure physicists probably will roll their eyes at the whole thing.

Like most Time Travel stories though, I think it's important to set up the rules in advance and stick to them, otherwise things can go way off the rails. I feel like they did a good job there.

Things ended in a pretty good spot, but I'd happily pick up a second book if they decide to write one. There is definitely room for more story if the want to tell it.

If you enjoy Stephenson and time travel stories, I think this is a good pickup. Like me however, you may find the first half of this book harder to get through than the second half. I think there was enough of interest there for me to get to the “good parts” without growing bored. I'd say the first half was a solid 3 stars, while the second half was a solid 4, hence my overall 3.5 rating.

The premise is so captivating. What happened to magic? Can we bring it back? Through in a little military mentality, some time travel, and things really get going.

I'll say that I like the story line here. The combination of history, languages, and science fiction is fun. I did not always like the format. The logs and posts kept making me want to skip ahead back to the story. Alas, important narrative is happening in those logs and posts.

There is some nudity, sexual language, and violence. Else, appropriate for all readers.

Overall, it was great fun. The complexities of time travelling make a wonderfully labyrinthine plot, and this, along with the great cast of characters, is what makes the book so entertaining. The satirical pokes at government bureaucracy are, at times, somewhat tedious, and whilst largely funny, just interfere with the main storyline.

I feel a sequel coming up.

A Container Full of Naked Vikings, What's Not to Love? After discovering why magic died out in 1951, governments all over the world are trying to bring it back to their own advantage. Not to be left behind, the American government gets together a rag tag bunch of people to work on the problem. They succeed but find out that manipulating time isn't as easy as they thought...
 
This book was just fun. Yes, it has obvious flaws (in detail as much as in pc) but looking past those it is just a fun romp through history with lots of interesting characters. Not to be taken seriously.

This is a very well written book that uses a range of writing styles (emails, journal entries, forum posts, reports etc.) to tell a hilarious, yet exciting and thought provoking tale with a bit of romance thrown in. This would have been 5 stars, but I found the ending to be abrupt and a bit of a cliffhanger, yet years after being written I can't even find a rumour of a sequel to resolve things.

4 stars compared to other Neal Stephenson (otherwise I look back and I think everything is 5 stars...) but could easily be 5 for the sheer readbility. Nicole Garland has managed to tone down the volume of “nerd dump” on the page which makes DODO an ideal starter for Stephenson. The plot develops quickly, unlike some of his other novels, and is a good mixture of inventiveness in a quite crowded field of time travel (i just finished Jodi Taylor) but blends well witches, time travel and secret governmental organizations...

Very much NOT a Neal Stephenson book.

Some of the hard science parts seem to have his fingerprints on them and the cliff-hanger sort of ending (along with the clever planting of parallel universe clues) are also strong hallmarks. One does have to wonder if there's going to be a sequel in order to tie up loose ends.

But it's clear to me that the characterization and the majority of the writing went to Nicole Galland... and to good effect. The women are much more normal. The romance is more sensible.

And generally it's a reasonably good read.

My biggest complaints are around the “found document” format and the generally predictable plot.

Didn't enjoy this as much as some earlier Neal Stephenson books. Not sure why, but I just couldn't relate to the characters. However, there is plenty of action and there are some good time-travel twists.
Also, the growth of D.O.D.O. as the story progresses provides and excellent example of Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy in action.
The audio version is very well done.
3+ stars, but I cannot quite bump it up to four.

In popular media, time travel is often under the umbrella of science fiction. That is not so for D.O.D.O., if it weren't for witches and their magic – a center point in the fantasy genre – there would be no time travel in the world Stephenson created. It's sort of an interesting blend of scientific analysis of fantastical magic. I think that's a fairly interesting approach to the premise of time travel which has been done for well over 100 years.

That being said, the book has a number of issues. The book is initially written from the perspective of Melisande Stokes, but as D.O.D.O establishes itself the book tells the story via emails, texts and IMs, D.O.D.O PSAs, sitreps, diary entries, and more from other people. While somewhat interesting to read what these people are experiencing, this also has the unfortunate drawback of removing any sense of consistent voice that developed throughout the first third or so of the book. Additionally, it's not always clear what purpose many of these supplemental entries serves. I often found myself asking “What's happening? Why is it happening? Is this important?” Far too frequently, there was no good reason for an entry.

This was a fantastic, fun read. A little “lighter” than many of Stephenson's books, but still with a good, deep jab of an idea.

It begins with a rather technical premise: what if, using theories of quantum physics, you could “bring back” working magic in a small area in modern day. And what if a secretive government organization is trying to figure this out in order to use it as a weapon against other countries which are presumptively doing the same to us?

Wild idea, right? It is, and it's a fun idea to explore. Somewhat like David Brin's The Practice Effect in the sense that the “way out there” idea is the obvious foundation and everything that comes after is direct consequence of the juxtaposition of our modern sensibility with that of the crazy concept. But what really makes this book is the characters and how they're developed. The stuff they go through and the time-structuring of the book add to the feeling that the main characters are truly in deep jeopardy.

This is yet another piece of evidence that goes on the “Why you should read everything Neal Stephenson writes” pile.

This is a spoiler-free review
Read on In The Sheets

This was one of those books that continuously called my name at the book store until one day I just blindly picked it up, took it home, and jumped in bed with it. One situation where that lead to zero regrets.

Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland have created an awesome world with a believable and historically researched, scientific explanation for how and why magic and time travel both existed and no longer exist, but still exist. It's honestly just super fun, this is the most fun I've had reading a book in a long time.

Most books of this length (750ish pages) look daunting. You read them, it starts off great, there's a big bump in the road where it feels unnecessarily long (like long just for the sake of being long). You get to the end, it's a chore, and you feel like a solid 200-300 pages could have been completely omitted without in anyway affecting the story or the book. This is not one of those cases.

The story is told from different perspectives using a variety of mediums such as old letters, translated documents, Slack messages, and power point presentations, it never feels monotonous or gets boring. Every page is a joy to read and feels relevant to the story, every character is flushed out and their development over the course of the book feels natural and exactly right. Also, Erzsebet is the best.

Not only is this a great historical / sci-fi / fantasy book, but it's also hysterical and a clear jab at startup culture and big corporations. I laughed, shook my head, nodded and rolled my eyes on every single page. As someone who has worked in startups for years, I can say that this book is a terrifyingly accurate depiction of the life of a startup and it's transition into a fucking evil corporation fully fledged company.

At the end of the day, I cannot recommend this book enough. Definitely worth picking up. Please go pick it up.