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)

Great book

This book is 100% worth every minute that you'll put into it. I like the reader, too, but he CANNOT do any sort of English accent to save his life. Only drawback in a wonderful book as several important characters are from the UK.

insane story with a lot of detail

the story itself is unbelievable. I would say slow paced action, because there are so much detail there, as if You watch an action movie in slow motion the whole time.

A 1000 pages of thrills!! @#!$#%&*%$#@ GREAT!

Stephenson has written thrillers before and he's written Pynchon-like novels with twisty sentences and tangents but this novel combines both and it's on fire for 1000 pages. Great plot, characters that work on every level, fun factoids sprinkled into dynamic gun battles, and some lovely writing about the outdoors. The narrator caught it all and kept track of dozens of globetrotting characters and juggling Chinese, Russian, British, Hungarian, and Boston accents while keeping the action flying. Top marks in every way

why

does every fiction book i read written buy a guy have some weird sex scenes i hate it and couldn’t even finish the book

Yes it is long

Where does Reamde rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

yes, I remember it clearly

What other book might you compare Reamde to and why?

Outlander

Which character – as performed by Malcolm Hillgartner – was your favorite?

there were so .many characters you meet along the way.
I think the 2 young travelers he meets on the train
Oh and the gentle giant he meets briefly when a fight breaks out somewhat near the end

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

no, it's almost impossible

Any additional comments?

I seriously did not think I would get so engrossed in this book that I would take my Mp3 player and walk around the house with headphones on because I could stop listening to it, but it was and I did

not bad but not great

I think this book written by Joe Author would average one less star. Neal gets that extra from having written lots of cool stuff in the past.

I found the book kind of tedious. I would find myself thinking about work or bills or laundry that needed doing instead of paying attention. His attention to detail and description is to the point where he seems to be mocking himself. This would be a typical scene.

"The gunman was certainly outside and stalking him so Joe climbed the stairs and went into the bedroom. When Joe went to look out the window a small object on the sill caught his attention. It was a black ant. The ant was on its hind legs, its forelegs up and praying like a penitent Christian post confession. It brought Joe back to his childhood in Authorland when ants and Christians were in abundance and frolicking in the wheat fields during harvest. The smell of the harvested wheat came back to him then. Filling his senses as if he was back baling the wheat with his brother Jack. How Jack loved ants and wheat. And Christians. These thoughts made Joe sigh and take in a deep breath. That breath saved his life as while inhaling he arched his back five degrees more than he usually would have after a normal sigh and the bullet that pierced the pane of glass missed him by millimeters.

He looked down at the sill. The ant was nowhere to be found."

I love detail and descriptive scenes, but if I had been reading this in paper form I would have flipped to the back to see how it ended about 2/3 of the way through.

Also, I wish I had a whiteboard at the end to write down all the characters, where they were, what they were doing and how they were connected. The actions scenes went on so long I would forget who was where in the room - who had guns - who was hurt, etc.

Thriller starring Geek-types

What did you like best about this story?

It's not Stephenson's best work, but even his non-best work is outstanding. More than the other ones of his I've read thus far, this book is fun--complete with tropical islands and British spies. Like other Stephenson books, it's deeply researched, transporting and full of interesting characters and worlds.

What does Malcolm Hillgartner bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Some reviewers have complained about the accents, but I thought they did help with painting the world.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, I don't have 35 hrs at once!

Any additional comments?

{{SPOILER}} So... What was on the thumb drive that Ivanov so desparately wanted?? I hoped he would get back to that at the end..

Not his best work

I am a fan. This book as with most of Stephenson's works, has many things going on at once, but these are not brought together very well at the end of this book. The end just seems to happen. Perhaps the author got tired. I got the feeling that we had hours of story and then, rather abruptly, "the end".

Malcolm Hillgartner gives a terrific read. The individual characters are not overdone, excellent!

Great, quick read

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

If you like Neal Stephenson, you'll love this book. If you don't like Neal Stephenson, you might like this book anyways.

Although I enjoyed the performance, I took points off for the recording of the performance. The recording includes echoes from the walls of the recording room. A closer mic or better acoustic dampening would have helped make the most of the great read. The problem isn't noticeable over speakers, but in headphones it's hard to ignore.

What other book might you compare Reamde to and why?

It's better than Snow Crash but not as good as Cryptonomicon.

What aspect of Malcolm Hillgartner’s performance would you have changed?

A better recording studio would have improved the sound quality.

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

No, it's a quick read that doesn't leave a lasting impact.

Insane Tension!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Absolutely! The first 3/4 of this book is almost unbearably tense. I loved it. The characters are great, the reading is captivating and the detail is classic Stephenson.
The story might be a bit farfetched but it is probably one of the most accessible Stephenson novels. The action is non-stop and the solutions to the characters' problems are very creative.