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)

Rollicking tour de force

Rollicking tour de force. A clever melding of adventure technology and perhaps even social commentary. Cleverly created characters which come alive. Long but moves along very well.

You get your money's worth

Neal Stephenson keeps the action going for 35 hours without letup and Malcolm Hillgartner is up for such a long read with a roomful of voices, each different and recognizable while all from the same "key" - by which I mean that none is outlandish or jarring.

Enjoyed it but geeky digressions undercut action

I am a fan of Stephenson's work, although I couldn't get through "Baroque."

I think there is more to this book than some other reviewers are crediting. It's not especially profound, but the author is dealing with some larger cultural and creative themes that are deeper than the usual techno/sf thriller. There's a thematic interplay between the 9/11 terrorist type plot and the cyber gaming plot that add an extra dimension. (My extended English lit analysis is mercifully omitted here.) And there's a fair amount of affectionate humor in parodies of the quirks of role playing cyber gaming, survivalists, corporate culture, IT system administrators, and sf/ fantasy writers. Its broad humor in a sort of Thomas Pynchon, picaresque way.

The books narrative style is both a blessing and a curse. It's like having a chatty geek character from "The Big Bang Theory" constantly buzzing in your ear, who is stricken with a form of Techno Tourettes syndrome that causes them to blurt out mostly interesting abstract theoretical analysis of everything that is going on. This can be entertaining at times, but can be a real momentum killer during the books many complex action scenes, which often take place along multiple plot lines simultaneously. If that sounds complicated, it is, sometimes to a fault. It's not Peckinpaw slow motion action, it's just occasionally pedantic and complex for its own sake. There were times I wished the author & characters would just stop analyzing and move the plot to the next scene. I listened at double speed.

Stephanson has a real facination with geology and geography that turn up in odd places. There are plot side trips to the Phillipines that I think take place there mostly because the author finds that country interesting. This book would have benefited from some judicious editing.

The characters are pretty stock, but for the most part I found them entertaining. The one exception was the villain, Abdullah Jones, who I found to be a theoretical construct who never really came to life, but that wasn't a deal killer.

Not a great book, but if you are a Stephenson fan and are familiar with his style, I think you'll enjoy it.

An amazing story with decent narration

With the pace and intensity of a cheap thriller novel and the immense world building and deep characters you expect from Neal Stephenson.
Russian accents are not the narrators strong suit.

So much

This was not at all what I thought it would be. The beginning was slow and the story went in a totally different direction than I was expecting. Although I ended up liking the story, I didn't love it and frequently lost concentration then came back to realize I hadn't missed much. It was a good plot, just not well told. Also, I don't enjoy the way female characters were presented in this story. All the characters were mostly flat, but the female characters were especially one dimensional and stereotypical in their actions.

A little slow to start , but hang on!

Little slow to start but the ground work is being laid. Then hang on, its non stop action, and then more so! Really entertaining and not a book for a little reading here and there. Once it gets going you can't stop....just hard to find a place to take a break for the action. Great characters, well developed, its a FUN ride, fasten your seatbelt!

The writing is very complicated, but so enjoyable

This is a unique book, although you can say that about almost everything Stephenson writes. What distinguishes this is a fascinating technique he uses. As the story progresses, you not only get the same view of a situation from different characters, the exact same piece of the story is told again, but with additional information added at the beginning, middle or end. If you aren't prepared, you may think that there is something wrong with the recording itself.

The story has so many twists and turns. He often jumps ahead so you are hearing about things for which you don't have the background. Just wait. It will come, and probably from a direction you didn't expect. Have fun with this one. It is absolutely worth it!

very enjoyable

I really enjoyed this far reaching and winding tale. fun characters and an interesting background for all the action. well done.

38 hours of great story telling

Any additional comments?

This is a trilogy's worth of adventure in one book, well managed by a master story teller. There are thrills and chills and multinational adventure throughout. At about 12 hours the story occasionally got a little slow and i could put it aside, I was afraid it would turn into a Perils of Pauline, but no, this is a great story with all the subplots coming together. With 12 hours left (as long as a longish Audible book) the conclusion is coming into focus, the excitement is building and I wonder "what more can possible happen before the end?" Well, a lot can and did happen. There is certainly death and destruction, but main characters are reasonably well treated, and the gore / violence was not overdone or overly upsetting. The narration/reading is great, with different characters and accents well done to help keep characters separate and be non-obtrusive to the story line. Well done. At one credit this is a bargain, a unique and plausible adventure of amazing scope. Listen to it!

Too long

I am a big Neal Stephenson fan and will continue to come back for his latest publication. I generally love the way he develops his characters and storyline, although he does have a tendency to be "long-winded". That is what happened in Reamde. By the fourth hour (really, not sure of the time elapsed, but it was probably longer) of gun shooting and slogging thru the woods, I just wanted it to stop.