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)

Not perfect, but worth a listen.

I have read and liked several of Stephenson's books. A lot. On the other hand, I've started several of his books and couldn't get through them. I read some of the reviews on Amazon, and many of them were only giving this book 3 stars--apparently because this book wasn't similar enough to his other books. I guess I would agree to some extent. In many ways this was a simpler book than, say, The Diamond Age or Snow Crash. So if you can't be happy with a Neal Stephenson book that isn't a towering edifice of imagination, maybe you will be disappointed. I suspect, however, that if you like Clancy's or Ludlum's books, this will be exactly your cup of tea. This is a pretty straightforward, although llloooonnnngggg, thriller.

In his description of the online game in this story, I kept wishing it was real so I could immediately start playing it, even though I'm not generally into bang-bang-shoot-'em-up games.

There were many characters that I liked a lot and was cheering for. I am NOT, as it happens, a big Clancy or Ludlum fan (generally) because I can't seem to care very much about their characters. I DID care about these people.

I don't think this was a perfect book, and I don't think this is Stephenson's best book. But I do think it is a good book and worth a listen.

Oh, and about the narrator: I think he did a really good job. There were numerous characters from many different countries, and he handled the accents very well.

Terrorists meet geeks..OL & in RL

I'm not a techno-nerd type person who dwells in the world of gaming.....about which many of the previews of this book emphasize.I'm an old granny with some ability to function in the world of computers and a family of geeks who keep me sort of up to date. I do, however, appreciate a good thriller and Neal Stephensons terrorist vs. gaming geeks novel kept me interested throughout it's very long story...with just a few exceptions.

There are some parts where the descriptive writing goes on far too long, IMO, but they don't terribly detract from the basic good plot and nice narration by Malcolm Hilgartner. I'd maybe wish for a bit of editing on the writers part, and from the reader I'd wish for a more consistent voice on the variety of accents but all in all it's a solid listen much along the lines of a Tom Clancy.

Not nearly as techy as William Gibson, I see that as a good thing for the run of the mill reader who isn't into Multiple Personality Gaming or whatever it's called, where my nephews seem to spend all their time and money-living their life in some alternate online universe that I don't understand....of course the last games I played was the board game of Battleship...I am truly old tech.

This book is a fun read, good buy, and a great listen. With a touch of love story on occasion, nice strong well developed female protagonists which is fun to read, the male protagonists are nicely portrayed too and the bad guys who aren't quite as smart as a group of gamers and survivalists when they get together as a united force.

Great Story, Decent Narration-Aside from Accents

As fans of Neal Stephenson know, he deserves the often used moniker "Master Storyteller." Reamde combines the adventure, character development, and technical acumen for which he is famous with real-time real world settings (Seattle, British Columbia, China...) not employed since his novel Zodiac in 1988. Reamde has all the technological cyber wizardry of Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon combined with modern gangsters, spies, and international intrigue. Reamde has the brilliant Stephenson ideas packed into his science fiction books with the accessibility of a story any Tom Clancy fan would certainly appreciate as well as dedicated Stephenson science fiction fans.

As fans of audio books know, narration is an essential part of any audio book. Although Malcolm Hillgartner has an excellent voice and delivery in general, he continually slides from Slavic accents into a weird accent as much Mexican-American as Hungarian or Russian. Sadly, his Chinese accents sound extremely Mexican-American, and not at all Asian. Sorry, Mr. Hillgartner, but if you cannot do an accent perfectly please do not even attempt it. It is distracting, and it detracts noticeably from this wonderful story.

Lots of much better books out there

I don't get paid for writing reviews. I write them because others' reviews help me a great deal in determining what books I will invest my money and valuable time in reading. I write them as a way of giving back to others in the same way.

Sometimes I have a dilemma in that I have a certain respect for the author for whatever reason and find it difficult to write a review that is not totally complimentary. This is one of those times. I read this book because I had just finished Snow Crash and was totally blown away by it. I still cannot get over how impressed I was with that book in almost every respect. Reamde was no Snow Crash.

When reviewing a book, there are a number of things that I think about and ask myself. So here are the questions and how I answered them for Reamde:

How much did I enjoy it - not much.
Was it well written - yes.
Was it unique in its storyline - not at all.
How well were the characters developed - very well.
How much did I care about the characters - not at all.
How much did I think about the next book I was going to read - after about the first third of the book I realized it was not going to get better and soon thought about my next selection a lot.
How much did I Not want the book to end - never.
Did it make me laugh or cry - never
Was it socially redeeming - no.
Did it have a satisfying ending - it had a certain finality to it and that was definitely good. It just took too long to get there.
How well was it narrated - very well.
How well was it produced - well except for how Audible actually pronounced Reamde, it was satisfactory.

And finally, would I recommend the book - only if you like car chases and shoot 'em up terrorist stories with absolutely nothing unique about it. There weren't really any car chases, it just felt like that: a 38 and a half hour car chase.

Interesting and Recommended

Some great characters and an interesting story line extended a bit beyond optimum but worth the credit and a satisfying thriller none the less. It could have been trimmed a bit but that's a quibble that cost it one star IMHO. It's quite unlike the more dynamic Snow Crash still it shows Stephenson's range and he is quite at home with this rather convoluted series of crisis inducing mistakes.

Great thriller but minor bumps

1 Too many numbered and lettered lists
2. occasional middle-aged man phrases, even when it's not Richard (no, I don't have to provide examples)
3. if it's going to be this long (which I like - in this case, the length and detail almost feel like an attribute of the plot and the worlds it describes, and it doesn't hurt that I'm listening on a 3 week business jaunt with two weekend breaks) and it's going to rely on a combination of preposterous but entertaining coincidences, sometimes the speculation by the characters ought to be more off the mark; everyone is just too dang smart.
4. Seamus - Mr. Hilgartner needs to dramatically improve his Boston (southie says the narrator) accent. It would have been much less distracting to simply speak basic American English.
5. Too much love for firearms. I mean, it sounds like Mr. Stephenson loves them. I like nice guns too but the net effect is that almost everyone in the book, at least characters who get more than cursory descriptions, are in love with guns.
6. I forget.

An improbable series of events unfold...

I picked up Reamde because the Audible blurb for this story involved an online game world, hackers, and a virus and it seemed like an interesting topic for a novel. That premise is just the tip of the iceberg and this tale veers all over the place. The main characters wind up all over the globe, and the online world of T'Rain, as spies, terrorists, smugglers, and the Russian mafia all get entangled into the plot. Every step of the way Stephenson ups the ante and the plot almost seems to run out of control.

Reamde moved along nicely but it was always just on the wrong side of being believable for me. The relationships formed by some of the characters were just too strong too quickly and the mechanics of the online gaming world of T'Rain were also just a little bit off. If you aren't an online gamer the latter may not be of concern to you at all; however, if you are picking this up because of the online game connection then you should know that it is only a small part of a much larger story. It is not as central to the tale as it was in "Ready Player One".

Reamde can be a fun thrill ride that will head in directions that aren't obvious but only pick it up if you are willing to embrace a chain of highly unlikely occurrences. Malcolm Hillgartner does a decent job of narrating although he deals with a lot of different accents to various degrees of success.

Easy 5 Star on story and narration.

What did you love best about Reamde?

Remarkable characters, a unique storyline, fast paced plot and top notch narration make this an easy 5 star novel. Did I mention its well written?

This is a long, complicated tale involving an in depth view of gaming, spies, gangsters, CIA ops, gun nuts, beautiful women, overweight men, and I could go on without exaggeration. As incredible and unlikely it seems that such a story could actually occur to one group of people inside of a month's time period, Stephenson's storytelling makes it work. His characters are so engrossing, believable and likable I could not stop listening.

What other book might you compare Reamde to and why?

Even though its not fantasy or horror, it reminds of Stephen King's The Stand, Under the Dome and Dumas Key. These great books and Remde share the same, multi layer storyline, an extremely large cast of characters and unforgettable heroes with truly evil adversaries. All have an excellent pace, which is important considering the length of the book.

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

I am fairly certain I haven't heard this guy before, which is a shame considering I've listened to over 500 novels. He is amazing. His accents are spot on and each character is easily discernible.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I loved the CIA character from Boston. He brought humor into the story.

Virtual worlds & a virus kick off this journey

Virtual reality, pissed off drug dealers, terrorists, small time crooks and credit card schemes all fall apart because of a simple virus making its way through a virtual universe. It is Neal Stephenson's crafty use of real world happenings tied together with virtual worlds that suck you in to start.

Reamde is really the story of a few select characters who are swept into situations they want no part of while fighting for their own lives and perhaps many others.

There is quite a bit of technical jargon in this book and Neal clearly expects you to know some of the basics (Wiki pages, virtual worlds, avatars) but interestingly it is what happens in the real world that is decidedly low tech and completely understandable by anyone.

If you are considering this book, it is a project (it took me the better part of October and the first week of November to complete) and some of the material has been done before (terrorists, credit card threats, nasty Russian mafia types) but it was a really fun ride and I am hoping there's a chance to meet some of these characters again.

-Bill

Really liked it!

This is my first Neal Stephenson book, so I didn't know what to expect. I enjoyed it. A little bit geeky (and he gets it right), a little quirky (enough to make you laugh), a little romance, and lots of adventure. I don't know why he made the story so long. Some parts are interesting but not necessary to the narrative. Overall a good story. I was disappointed when it was over.