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A review by sarahetc
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Nicole Galland, Neal Stephenson
4.0
Four and a half, really.
On one hand, I'm glad Neal Stephenson more or less stays away from social media and other venues to talk about this plans and his progress. That means we're never left salivating for the next in what we're promised in a series. On the other, until he really nails down how to end a book-- and we are at eight stand alone novels now and counting-- give us at least a clue that there might be a sequel.
The rise of the D.O.D.O involves army office and physicist Trisan Lyons identifying and hiring historical linguist Melisandre Stokes. He with the liquid nitrogen and her with the Sumerian find several other people to rope into what seems like a crazy scheme until they're at the Trapezoid and the reader begins to wonder just how deep the layers of time travel are in the book.
The pacing was fantastic because Stephenson and Galland have seamlessly written the shifting perspectives of three co-narrators across differing strands of time and space: first, Stokes, writing from 1851 about her memories of 2016 (or so); Rebecca East-Oda, writing in real time about 2016 or so while references Stokes's (and others') journey's to varying Strands of past; and Grainne, writing first from several Strands of Elizabethan London and then from one or two Strands of 2016. They augment the general story with military style memos and wiki entries from other, secondary and tertiary characters of that the novel reads half-whirlwind adventure, half-world's most interesting post-operation dossier.
I was pleased to see that it is nearly impossible to identify which voice is Stephenson's and which voice is Galland's. Altho having never read her I probably wouldn't be able to identify a particular style anyway. So I'll just say it was very smooth and my attention never wavered over word choice, sentence structure, device or any other point of general style.
However, given the many and varied late revelations as well as some of the hints seeded throughout the recurring trips to past Strands, I would very much like a sequel and I am sure I am not alone.
On one hand, I'm glad Neal Stephenson more or less stays away from social media and other venues to talk about this plans and his progress. That means we're never left salivating for the next in what we're promised in a series. On the other, until he really nails down how to end a book-- and we are at eight stand alone novels now and counting-- give us at least a clue that there might be a sequel.
The rise of the D.O.D.O involves army office and physicist Trisan Lyons identifying and hiring historical linguist Melisandre Stokes. He with the liquid nitrogen and her with the Sumerian find several other people to rope into what seems like a crazy scheme until they're at the Trapezoid and the reader begins to wonder just how deep the layers of time travel are in the book.
The pacing was fantastic because Stephenson and Galland have seamlessly written the shifting perspectives of three co-narrators across differing strands of time and space: first, Stokes, writing from 1851 about her memories of 2016 (or so); Rebecca East-Oda, writing in real time about 2016 or so while references Stokes's (and others') journey's to varying Strands of past; and Grainne, writing first from several Strands of Elizabethan London and then from one or two Strands of 2016. They augment the general story with military style memos and wiki entries from other, secondary and tertiary characters of that the novel reads half-whirlwind adventure, half-world's most interesting post-operation dossier.
I was pleased to see that it is nearly impossible to identify which voice is Stephenson's and which voice is Galland's. Altho having never read her I probably wouldn't be able to identify a particular style anyway. So I'll just say it was very smooth and my attention never wavered over word choice, sentence structure, device or any other point of general style.
However, given the many and varied late revelations as well as some of the hints seeded throughout the recurring trips to past Strands, I would very much like a sequel and I am sure I am not alone.