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From the Bookshelf of Beyond Reality…

The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. (D.O.D.O., #1)

Neal Stephenson,

Nicole Galland

Start date: January 1, 2019

Finish date: January 31, 2019

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Jun 20, 2017 Kdawg91 rated it really liked it

This was very cool, Stephenson in my opinion is an acquired taste, either he floats your literary boat, or he sinks you like an 8 ball in the corner pocket. But, with the help of his partner in this book, Nicole Galland, this was easily the most fun I have had with one of his works, in well....forever.

It has the trademarks of a Stephenson book, tons of cool ideas, massive intakes of information, but there is a fun and playfulness and dare I say, craziness that makes The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. ...more

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Feb 03, 2022 mina rated it liked it

This book is too long :D And I am surprised this is only Book 1 *sigh.
Anyway, the plot is not exciting (efforts to bring magic back to the present time, after it disappeared in 1851 due to some scientific advancement: photography, although the mechanism is not clear) but the book has hilarious parts when chapters are not about the story itself: meetings with congress (?) on the budgeting of this DODO project, files on individual staff, contents of DODO secret website, private chats/emails betwee ...more

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Aug 25, 2017 Steve rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, magical-realism, review-me

Neil Stephenson launches himself and co-author Nicole Galland into the growing sub-genre of what-if-magic-was-real. It's one thing to write about how our world blurs at the edges into magical worlds (Hurakami). It's quite another to have specific character consciously able to work magic.

The authors approach the topic as Stephenson has does so well in so many books: they create a scientific and historical context in which magic existed. Witches throughout historical, and perhaps prehistoric time Neil Stephenson launches himself and co-author Nicole Galland into the growing sub-genre of what-if-magic-was-real. It's one thing to write about how our world blurs at the edges into magical worlds (Hurakami). It's quite another to have specific character consciously able to work magic.

The authors approach the topic as Stephenson has does so well in so many books: they create a scientific and historical context in which magic existed. Witches throughout historical, and perhaps prehistoric times, practiced magic, passed it down mother to daughter through the generations. Stephenson and Galland partly describe scientifically how witches do magic, and extensively work through how magic once applied can alter history here and there. At first, I thought, late to the game and derivative, but the book brings a wonderful touch to the topic and also works on other levels.

The story focuses on why we no longer have magic in the present, when and why it stopped, and what can the at first ragtag cast of characters do about it.

The authors tell the story from several points of view, mostly contemporary Harvard scholar of ancient languages Melisande Stokes, Grainine, a historical witch from a couple centuries ago, and Rebbecca East-Ota, who gets drawn into the adventure. Other characters also regularly make entries; it's those three that move the story forward. Sometimes books that jump from one vantage point to another seem choppy, or just transparently building tension. In this case, all passages in the book are written as documents collected in some internal documentation system, the source of which gradually emerges. And at least in the hardcover version, a different look in the text. I am not sure the book would be as much fun in an ebook format. In any event, the reader becomes the after the action reviewer of extensive project documentation. I loved it.

Given the predominance of the women characters, it was great that Stephenson teamed up with Galland. (They previously worked together on some other books I don't remember as well.) The partnership worked seamlessly. In some of his writing, Stephenson has not done as well with his female characters as his male ones. In this book, the reader sees Stephenson's distinctive wit and manic pace, and also have women characters coming alive and carrying the weight of the narrative.

And wit the book has. Each character has a distinctive voice: blog post, diary, internal memorandum. These blend with transcribed auto recording of company chat or video monitoring, personnel policies on culture, sexual harassment, internal security, documentation of the technology created. As the book slowly marches toward the inevitable crisis, the humor grows. You know a true disaster looms. You smile at the stupidity or venality some of the characters, such as Stoke's faculty head Blevins and Washington types, pushing everyone to the brink. You see core conflict among humorously ambitious science, quietly powerful magic and relentless history heading toward explosion. This makes the story stand out among stories in this genre.

The foibles of the military and political types is funny, perhaps reflects Stephenson's libertarian sensibilities, yet unfortunately plausible and cautionary for our present era.

The story has a touch of romance between Stokes the scholar of ancient languages and Lt. Lyons, intentionally overdrawn male military figure and physicist. You figure its going to happen, just a matter of when and how. Even that has self-conscious wit about it, almost like Harrison Ford Raiders of the Lost Ark movies: with the characters at hand, tension and conflict has to give way to romance.

The authors also offer detailed and convincing historical interludes, with everything from a contemporary Irish perspective on Shakespearean theater, life in early colonial Boston, the Jewish community in 1200 Constantinople as it faced the 4th Crusade, to the ambitions Viking mercenaries to dominate Europe and the everything else. Lovely.

I got into this faster than other recent Stephenson novels. And the good news, I suppose, after 700+ pages, is that the book sets us up for an inevitable sequel. Enjoy.

...more

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Jul 08, 2017 Jenny T rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science-fiction, read-in-2017, read-in-2024

4 stars back in 2017, when I first read it. Five stars now. It's so much better the second time around. Still slow moving but the wry humor really comes out and I love the characters! ...more

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