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)

Couldn't stop listening!

I am a huge Neal Stephenson fan and Reamde is definitely one of his best works. This book is so interesting and action packed that I couldn't stop listening. I've read and re read so many of his books I can't believe it till me this long to get to Reamde. Get it!

Fun, but content does not justify the length.

This is probably my least favorite Neal Stephenson novel.

The narrative spins out in too many directions, and the events tying everything together are increasingly implausible. There's a moment in the mid-section when female protganist Zula wonders what the chances are that she would have her life threatened by Russian gangsters, jihadist terrorists, and a grizzly bear all in the same week. The answer is: probably zero. And yet the the novel keeps spinning out, occasionally giving a wink and nod to its own implausibility—by the end, as the scattered characters absurdly converge on the same location for the very-long shootout-finale, they each have moments of not believing their eyes because it's so crazy that they are all there. And yet they are all there, as though the author simply could not bear to allow any of his minor characters to complete their arcs earlier in the story, and figured if he just filled out their very long travelogues with a ridiculous amount of detail about gas in boats and crossing borders and whatnot, the details will somehow equate authenticity.

I don't know what to make of this book. At times, I wondered if Stephenson intended it as a parody of himself. His other books are also very long and extremely detailed, but they have a scope of vision and imagination to merit the excess. SEVENEVES, for example, goes on and on about physics and present-day space technology—but that's in the context of a story about humanity literally fleeing the Earth and attempting to survive in space within the confines of our current space program (and ultimately a story about human evolution over the course of five thousand years). Big ideas! Huge stakes! So yes, tell me about the physics, tell how this could actually happen. Teach me, I'll be patient. In REAMDE we get the same level of detail about ... a pretty run-of-the-mill kidnapping/terrorism thriller. It's not bad, by any means, and it will keep you mildly entertained for almost 40 hours if nothing else. But I don't typically seek out Neal Stephenson novels for mindless entertainment.

Also, the villain is pretty one-dimensional—we never really get a window into his mind, his worldview, the values that drive him to so much violence, other than a few stereotypical Islamist tropes. It's a missed opportunity that, 3 dozen hours in, left me weary and wondering why the book was still going on.

But if you like thrillers with lots of twists and turns, by all means, give it a go.

very entertaining, a few issues

I did love this story. it had all the elements: Seattle tech wizards, Russian mobsters, Chinese hackers, middle eastern terrorists, Idaho off grid gun nuts, and more. the action was nonstop, the pace breakneck. the narration was adequate, but only that. I agree with other reviews that said they wished the author had done more editing of the end when all elements converge. it seemed to drag on so long that I eventually stopped caring who lived and who died. I had mixed feelings about the cutesy romances that developed, they seemed highly unlikely. all that being said, I was highly entertained and frequently delighted during the first 3/4 of the story, laughed out loud several times. great characters. I recommend it.

Thriller, Crime, MMORPG

At first I thought this was a book about video games. Then quickly I realized that games were a fun cultural reference, but the heart of the book was a turn-twisting ensemble international crime thriller with all the stops pulled out. Exceptional in its use of fun realistic details while keeping the plot moving at breakneck speed, this book is a lot of fun to listen to. The performance is solid and well paced, and while the accents might not always be perfect, the characters shine through brilliantly. Highly recommended.

Excellent romp!

A fine techno-thriller with a lot of dry humor, detailed descriptions of the relevant technology, and one of the longest sequences of chase and gun battle since The Road Warrior.

Brilliant thriller

Stephenson tells a great story as always. He seems to be able to tell stories wonderfully in a variety of genres: a great gift.

The reading was pretty good. Accents were not good, but overall the voice, pacing, and accentuation were agreeable.

An incredible ride.

I can't imagine all the research that went behind writing Stephenson's Reamde, but it's an incredible looping ride. It takes it's time, it could definitely be classified as an 'epic' fiction, as Stephenson uses deliberate extrapolation and minute details to explain some of the more unlikely scenarios in the novel. There are many scenes that are made, in my opinion, unmanageably realistic, especially toward the end, which drags the story on.

It hit close to home when one of the characters are revealed as a child of Sudan. One of my best friends growing up turned out to be adopted from Sudan, and I never knew until he gave a speech for a community college I attended, years later. He lost his entire family, and the details of his march aren't my business to share, but he never mentioned it, he did his best to move on, and made the most of his life, which is a really cheesy and harsh thing to say. When you dwell on your problems, you're only inviting them to continue to hurt you. A lot of North American kids could learn a valuable lesson from him, and from Zula.

I almost wanted to say Stephenson tried to write the Richard Forthrast as a genius level asperger spectrum, but it's actually really doubtful. The way he organizes his life, and his detachment from reality was probably written this way to detail the repercussions on his personality from years of experience with T'Rain, and from managing a huge industry at it's foundation level.

Overall it's truly a great story, and I've listened to it twice since I bought it, although I usually don't repeat huge novels unless I'm reaaally head over heels for them. I don't recommend trying to quote any of the anthropological fiction-facts without at least a Wikipedia trek.

A lot of the research behind Reamde is sound, such as flying low to get under the radar, and wangbas. Some of the research may be true, but is more opinionated, such as the differences between Go and Chess. But, all of it together gives you a small glimpse into what it may be like to grow up in another country, and the culture shock even open minded youths come across when removed from their accustomed environment. The circumstances that carry the story are as likely as winning the lottery, several times, in the same year, and the plot at times gets hair thin, but with Stephenson's deliberation, it's easy to accept the looping piecemeal situations as a more likely scenario then some of the easy answer fast fire action novels.

This book is sticky, and the humanitarian lessons will keep with you long after the epilogue. It's entertaining and masterfully written, and to be honest it was a relief getting a break from novels where the hero uses his arsenal of one-liners to punctuate explosions.

An Engaging Journey Makes It Worth The Destination

What a romp!

Reamde begins by introducing us to a strong and varied cast of characters. Once the story weaves them together, it then tears them apart; with events scattering them across the globe. Some end up on their own, others in small groups. The rest of the story slowly works towards bringing all these people back together for the story's climax and resolution. Some will make it, others will not.

The book rotates between these different individuals and groups as they deal with everything from hijacked plans, to adrift boats at sea, to navigating wild mountain passes, to working their way through different cities around the world. Each plot rotation is long enough to allow you to miss the other groups and wonder what's happening to them. The focus then rotates, and another piece of the puzzle is revealed as we move to another part of the world, and another group of our intrepid characters.

Malcolm Hillgartner did a fantastic job with the narration, and I appreciated his style of reading. He didn't try to do female voices different than male, which I was glad of. He also did a solid job with the accents from the different nationalities.

An added bonus of the book was the fascinating world of T’Rain that it introduces us to. T’Rain is the online role playing game that plays a pivotal role in the story's plot. T’Rain's virtual, mystical world provides a chimerical quality to the story that I greatly enjoyed.

The downside of the novel was that the last 4 hours were in desperate need of an editor. It went on far too long, and would have been more effective if written in a cleaner, more concise style. I will also admit that it came to mind several times that you could build an entire new drinking game based on how many times the author uses the word "inferred" in his sentences.

Overall, a very enjoyable way to spend some time, and I will certainly be checking out additional novels by Neal Stephenson.

should have stopped after ready player one

After listening and really enjoying ready player one, i thought i would jump to reamde. seeing the great reviews here and on amazon. really wish i could get my credit back. Its not a bad story, just slow, not very clever, and sorta boring. there are bits that are interesting. but the virtual bit is flat. the action real life are to far between. the characters are thin. i like the farming parts, or descriptions of country side. but the Russians are getting boring. i am only through the first part (8 hours), will listen to the rest, but its getting hard to hold my attention. probably wont pick up any thing else by this author. kinda surprised so many listeners like it..

Good fun...but a little low on substance

Stephenson is a great storyteller, and like most of his books (I'm a committed fan) this one is a great romp. However, what sets him aside from the other prolific storytellers who reliably produce good, long novels is that is books tend to have some real intellectual substance, even when they don't take themselves too seriously. Such substance is missing from Reamde. I know that Anathem, my personal favorite, is not to everyone's taste--but even Snow Crash, Diamond Age, and Cryptonomicon all played with big ideas in a compelling and stimulating way. Reamde has great characters, fast-paced action, and surprising twists and turns--but the ideas are a bit thin on the ground.