The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.

A Novel

By: Neal Stephenson, Nicole Galland

Narrated by: Laurence Bouvard, Shelley Atkinson, Laural Merlington, Joe Barrett, Will Damron, Luke Daniels

Length: 24 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

From best-selling author Neal Stephenson and critically acclaimed historical and contemporary commercial novelist Nicole Galland comes a captivating and complex near-future thriller combining history, science, magic, mystery, intrigue, and adventure that questions the very foundations of the modern world.

When Melisande Stokes, an expert in linguistics and languages, accidently meets military intelligence operator Tristan Lyons in a hallway at Harvard University, it is the beginning of a chain of events that will alter their lives and human history itself. The young man from a shadowy government entity approaches Mel, a low-level faculty member, with an incredible offer. The only condition: She must sign a nondisclosure agreement in return for the rather large sum of money.

Tristan needs Mel to translate some very old documents, which, if authentic, are earth-shattering. They prove that magic actually existed and was practiced for centuries. But the arrival of the scientific revolution and the Age of Enlightenment weakened its power and endangered its practitioners. Magic stopped working altogether in 1851, at the time of the Great Exhibition at London's Crystal Palace - the world's fair celebrating the rise of industrial technology and commerce. Something about the modern world "jams" the "frequencies" used by magic, and it's up to Tristan to find out why.

And so the Department of Diachronic Operations - D.O.D.O. - gets cracking on its real mission: to develop a device that can bring magic back and send Diachronic Operatives back in time to keep it alive...and meddle with a little history at the same time. But while Tristan and his expanding operation master the science and build the technology, they overlook the mercurial - and treacherous - nature of the human heart.

Written with the genius, complexity, and innovation that characterize all of Neal Stephenson's work and steeped with the down-to-earth warmth and humor of Nicole Galland's storytelling style, this exciting and vividly realized work of science fiction will make you believe in the impossible and take you to places - and times - beyond imagining.

Full cast of narrators includes Robert Fass, James Foster, Tavia Gilbert, Arthur Morey, David Stifel, Charlie Thurston, and Kate Udall.

©2017 Neal Stephenson (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

You will not regret the journey!

It is a long book. As such I hardly remember when it started. It was such a long and enjoyable journey. Its very difficult to pinpoint and identify the type of the book. Is it a science fiction? Well it deals with time travel but also with ancient witches. Is it a fantasy story? Well, not exactly. At the end of the day its the attempt to save science and technology. Is it a satire on a secretive bureaucratic government agency and how it deals with witches on its payroll? Well, that definitely part of the more hilarious and funny themes withing the story. So the short answer is that you will find in it so many themes and subjects, woven brilliantly together into a great and enjoyable adventure with a lot of fun and leave you with a lot to think about.. .

One of the more interesting (though definitely not necessarily a main theme) is how a small startup can succeed against all odds, and when it finally become successful, the 'processes and structures' put in place on top of its enthusiastic founders bring it to a spectacular fall down (and seeing what's happening to Uber these days, it is a kind of an eye opening parable).

Some readers were critics about the format of the book. I believe that the format which is kind of constructed of 'communication logs', diaries, etc' where there is not a single 'know all' author make the reading / listening much more rich and enjoyable experience. The superb audio production with so many narrators, each with its own unique accent add so much to the 'written' story, makes it not just a 'for driving time' experience but the recommended format to consume this book.

Interesting

Some of the characters are fascinating. I especially enjoyed the point of view descriptions of new surroundings. The bard's tale was worth the price of the book. Some humor sections had me laughing out loud. Tags get boring and could use a careful edit to retain flavor but decrease tedium. I am sharing this one with family.

Witches, Time Travel and Government Bureaucrats!

This was a different Stephenson novel for me. I am a fan, but sometimes his stuff gets a bit stuck in the weeds with the time period, technology or some other part of the story. DODO was an interesting concept and, at first, I thought somewhat predictable in the flow of the characters and the story. Well, I admit I was wrong. While there was some dragging in parts, overall, this story of the attempted reclamation of magic in the 21st century didn't fail to keep me enthralled. Listening to the story was an interesting way to let the story of Tristan, Mellisant, Erzabet and the DODO agency unfold during my commute. Aspects of the story, the development of time travel and the idiocy that is military bureaucracy came to light differently (and got me more heated) than if I was reading the book. You still needed to suspend your state of belief at times when Stephenson and Galland didn't really consider the paradox issues of the tale, but then again, the focus was magic and witches, not time travel for time travel's sake. I got about 3/4 of the way in and wanted to throw the damned book out the window of the car at 80 mph (then realized it was my phone) because the whole normal path of the plot was getting shot to hell by that Irish bitch, but then I calmly put the phone back down as Galland probably looked at Stephenson and said "they'll hate you if you do that". And I would have. Listen or read the book, you'll understand.

Oh, the one thing I hated about the audio book was the conversion of the wireless conversations between DODO and Secret Service agents. Going through each and every ID got old quick. But that was about it. The narration was really good. Pace moved and accents weren't too bad. Good job!

Neal Stephenson strikes again

I have read every novel and novella Mr Stephenson has written. They never disappoint. Not at all like so many formula writers that take one idea and reprocess it like a cow reprocess previous food, usually with that same order.
Mr. Stephenson's books are a fresh meal every time. Served with wit, science, history and plausibility. Great characters. The presentation as a collection of sourced documents was intriguing. I loved the scratching sound. Bought the hard bound book too so I could see how it was represented in print.

It's really 3 and a quarter stars

Don't want to say any more but audible is being picky and the app won't let me split the stars up so they just go and sit on a spike

Creative pretty fun book.

I thought this book was awesome. It might be a better read than listen because the listing of time stamps got tedious but all in all very creative and good story line.

time travel & magic

an interesting & entertaining story of hijinks & counter hijinks involving time travel to save magic.

A witty hybrid of fantasy and scifi

The Rise and Fall of DODO manages to perfectly blend Sci-fi and fantasy elements to create an unfathomably deep tale of time travel involving an ENORMOUS cast of characters from all kinds of different places and times, all whilst maintaining a razor sharp wit.

acronimically awesome if you like acronimes 20 wrd

enjoyable if you wilco 20 words needed error blah error blah and another submit error

I loved everything about this book!

the ideas, the plot, the characters, and the character development were all wonderful! Highly recommended