Master of the Revels

A Return to Neal Stephenson's D.O.D.O.

By: Nicole Galland

Narrated by: Laurence Bouvard, Shelley Atkinson, Allyson Ryan, Laural Merlington, Vaneh Assadourian, Charlie Thurston, Derek Perkins, Ron Butler, Will Damron, Robert Fass, Billie Fulford-Brown, Mike Ortego, Joe Barrett, Tavia Gilbert, full cast

Length: 19 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

In this brilliant sequel to The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.—an enthralling, history-bending adventure traversing time and space, fact and fiction, magic and science co-written with #1 New York Times bestselling author Neal Stephenson—a daring young time traveler must return to Jacobean England to save the modern world.

This fast-paced sequel to the New York Times bestselling near-future adventure The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. picks up where the original left off, as Tristan Lyons, Mel Stokes, and their fellow outcasts from the Department of Diachronic Operations (D.O.D.O.) fight to stop the powerful Irish witch Gráinne from using time travel to reverse the evolution of all modern technology.

Chief amongst Gráinne’s plots: to encrypt cataclysmic spells into Shakespeare’s “cursed” play, Macbeth. When her fellow rogue agents fall victim to Gráinne’s schemes, Melisande Stokes is forced to send Tristan’s untested, wayward sister Robin back in time to 1606 London, where Edmund Tilney, the king’s Master of Revels, controls all staged performances in London.

And now Gráinne controls Tilney.

While Robin poses as an apprentice in Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Mel travels to the ancient Roman Empire and, with the help of double-agent Chira in Renaissance Florence, untangles the knotted threads of history while the diabolical Gráinne jumps from timeline to timeline, always staying frustratingly one stop ahead—or is it behind?

Historical objects disappear, cities literally rise and fall, and nothing less than the fate of humanity is at stake. As Gráinne sows chaos across time and space, the ragtag team of ex-D.O.D.O. agents must fix the past—in order to save the future.

Critically acclaimed author Nicole Galland brings her deep knowledge of history and signature wit to this gripping romantic adventure.

©2021 Nicole Galland (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

Not as funny as the first one, but with a better story.

Although it wasn’t quite as laugh out loud funny as the first book (the viking invasion of Walmart was hilarious) this was definitely more engaging in narrative terms. Now that our heroes are no longer working for the US military industrial complex, and now they’re up against a real and terrifying antagonist, they’re much easier to root for. I liked the idea of the ensemble cast. I just wished they’d given a bit more thought to consistency in pronunciation, because the pronunciation was all over the place. In general though, a worthy enough piece of entertainment, with a compelling enough cliffhanger that I’ll probably stick around for the next one.

Lots of fun

A mix of satire, adventure and speculative historic fiction. Well performed. I really enjoyed it.

eeh

Not as good as the first one. poor development of characters. Credit would have been better spent elsewhere

Just as Enjoyable and the 1st DODO book

I really enjoyed this book and did not want to stop listening! The plot was complicated which is to be expected with the subject matter. I would not advise anyone listen to it without reading/listening to book one first

Disappointing Sequal

So much potential after the first book in the series. The characters and narration are excellent in this sequel but what a lousy plot. You gotta love Shakespeare to be fully satisfied. Still worth the listen if you liked the first book. Hopefully this will be a long series with many parts.

Hard to follow

Jumps all over the place and it’s hard to figure out what time we’re in and why. The super long emails back and forth are annoying to listen to, maybe it’s easier to read. Think it tries to take on to much in one book.

A worthy successor

I enjoyed The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. The Master of the Revels is an entertaining sequel. I enjoy the “documented history” presentation style that the carries over. It was great to reunite with some of the characters I loved (Grainne) and hated (Blevins). The story is a bit less organized, and some of the plot lines are left dangling. I miss the science and technical details. I like the ensemble narration style that Carrie’s over from the original.

Do not waste a credit

TL;DR Regret purchase

Thought this would continue in the vein of the first book but it's a whole lot of time dedicated to one tasks, then leaving the entirety unresolved with a sort of cliff hanger at the end which was never followed up on.

I wish more people would vote these reviews as "Helpful" even if the writing and setting was great and narrator was great, it's average I'd have expected from the Plus club credits and not a worthy successor to a Neal Stephenson Novel.

Better than the last that sucked

It was better than the last one however, the multiple Readings of the after action report just got Heynis

A wonderful continue to the original story

This is a great performance to a story that continues the original Dodo.
It is not as good but still very entertaining and worth the time.
This one has a much bigger focus on theater and Shakespeare. So if you are a theater fan, you will probably enjoy it even more.
Know that the ending is a straight lead to a next story which i hope will exist.