Reamde

By: Neal Stephenson

Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner

Length: 38 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

“Stephenson has a once-in-a-generation gift: he makes complex ideas clear, and he makes them funny, heartbreaking, and thrilling.” - Time

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anathem, Neal Stephenson is continually rocking the literary world with his brazen and brilliant fictional creations - whether he’s reimagining the past (The Baroque Cycle), inventing the future (Snow Crash), or both (Cryptonomicon). With Reamde, this visionary author whose mind-stretching fiction has been enthusiastically compared to the work of Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo, Kurt Vonnegut, and David Foster Wallace - not to mention William Gibson and Michael Crichton - once again blazes new ground with a high-stakes thriller that will enthrall his loyal audience, science and science fiction, and espionage fiction fans equally. The breathtaking tale of a wealthy tech entrepreneur caught in the very real crossfire of his own online fantasy war game, Reamde is a new high - and a new world - for the remarkable Neal Stephenson.

©2011 by Neal Stephenson. (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“Stephenson...delivers a sprawling thriller that shows him in complete control of his story.” ( Publishers Weekly)

“Noir futurist Stephenson returns to cyberia with this fast-moving though sprawling techno-thriller...Who’ll prevail? We don’t know till the very end, thanks to Stephenson’s knife-sharp skills as a storyteller. An intriguing yarn—most geeky, and full of satisfying mayhem.” ( Kirkus Reviews, starred review)

“Sometimes when you’re reading Neal Stephenson, he doesn’t just seem like one of the best novelists writing in English right now; he seems like the only one.” (Lev Grossman, Time)

Perfect Stephenson.

Stephenson once again proves that he can write anything. Although this book is 180º from Anathem, which I loved, its manages to be just as good while being completely different in every way.

I've read a lot of books that use the premise of a Fantasy RPG somehow gaining real world significance but this book shows how you don't need the Matrix or a killer rogue AI to do this, MMORPGs already have real world significance, namely Gold Farming, the practice of accumulating in game gold and selling it for real world money. There is no magic technology at work in this book, just common everyday tech that kicks off a crazy sequence of events.

Of course, it doesn't end there. By the second download the story has chinese hackers, russian mafia, british spies and muslim terrorists all mixing in some of the most violent and intricately written action scenes I've ever read and reminiscent of Quentin tarrintino movies.

The twists this book take are amazing, you never know when a mundane "character" scene is going to literal explode into a murder, plane crash or gun battle.

Another gripping tale

Having previously read and loved Snowcrash and The Diamond Age, I was nervous to pick this up on audiobook.

Thankfully, Hillgartner's voice does it justice. His portrayal of the various accents as well as the female voices did not disappoint. I especially enjoyed the inflection used to convey sarcasm, as Stephenson has a gift for capturing the utterly ridiculous behaviors by characters in a perfectly dry observational humor. This coupled with Hillgartner's delivery left me laughing out loud.

The story itself kept me engaged throughout my daily commute. I came back from weekends actually looking forward to the Monday morning drive, just to get back into the story. Once again I am promised a wild ride and Stephenson delivers.

Not for those with short attention spans

This is a stereotypical espionage thriller wrapped with about 50 layers of fascinating detail. The reader comes away with an incredible knowledge of international flight plans, militia groups, border politics, role playing games, African genocide, Canadian weed smuggling, and a host of other more arcane topics. I doubt that most thriller readers actually want that much detail. Those who read Neal Stephenson novels regularly come to expect it, so it won't be a shock. It's a good story, with great characters, that every now and then gets bogged down in the minutiae.

A good Stephenson novel

This book went off in a unexpected direction and the MMO game plot point ended up feeling a bit too much like a McGuffin. I accepted it, though I had to swallow a bitter pill of a plot point to do so and it didn't sit with me so well. Other than that, Stephenson does his usual interesting details and characters and it made for an enjoyment book.

Enjoyable listen

If you could sum up Reamde in three words, what would they be?

Thrilling, complex, long

What did you like best about this story?

Lots and lots of twists and turns - it is really 3 or 4 books in one.

Any additional comments?

Reamde reminded me a lot of William Gibson's recent work - a sort of hyper-present-day-reality with strong female leads. The length is typical of Stephenson's writing - full of wandering paragraphs and delightful details. You can love the musings of a talented mind, or get frustrated that the plot is not always central to the exposition.

Great book but not Stephenson's best

What made the experience of listening to Reamde the most enjoyable?

Sokolov is the best.

What did you like best about this story?

This would make a great TV show. The beats in the story are very similar to a serialized show.

Have you listened to any of Malcolm Hillgartner’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

First time. Not bad.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Crying. There are some tender moments in the story that just work.

Any additional comments?

The usage of clip instead of magazine drove me absolutely insane. Stephenson did a lot of research on this book but apparently missed that important piece of information.

If Michael Bay wrote a book...

My first Neal Stephenson book, and it's hard to imagine how I might have been more disappointed. Small groups of people inexplicably crossing paths all around the world, endless gun fights with dozens of fatalities (except for any character important enough to have a name). I nearly stopped listening for good when a heroine and Middle Eastern Terrorist meet at gunpoint in the woods- only to have a wild animal come out of the woods during a critical seconds to attack the villain... and this absurdity repeats more than once. As far as the "connection" between the techno-MMRPG and the runaway "24" style terrorism plot... there actually isn't really any. I've give positive reviews to nearly every book I've ever listened too... couldn't force it on this one. REAMDE = Really Not Good.

Loved this one almost as much as "Baroque Cycle"

Another twisty plot with many characters and sub-plots. It was hard to put it down!

Not the typical Neal Stephenson

Die hard Neal Stephenson fans that only want to see him write "Neal Stephenson" books should stay far away from this one. This book is a much more straight forward techno-thirller than the typical Stephenson work and I say that isn't a bad thing. Stephenson's prose and his always well researched scientific and technical details are present mixed with techno action reminiscent of a James Rollins novel. The book moves along at a breakneck pace and never drags, a great feat for a 1000+ page (38+ hours) book.
This book is fun and entertaining and if you are looking for a great action thriller to listen to, you won't go wrong with this one. If you are looking for a "Neal Stephenson" novel you might want to skip it.

Whimsical, entertaining, all over the place

You kind of have to be a Stephenson fan to enjoy this book. I realize that may not be the case with everyone. If you like a kind of "stream of conciseness", fly by the seat of your pants, 10 different directions, crazy world that this book paints, then you'll love this book.

All the different story lines eventually collide, but at times you'll not really think it's going to happen.

I do technology for a living, and I specifically work on software. So maybe this book was more interesting to me than the average person. But I think that it was crazy and fun. If that's what you're after, then you should feel fine about getting this book.

Hey, it's Stephenson, pandemonium is what he does best.