Hardcover, 1044 pages
English language
Published Aug. 8, 2011 by William Morrow.
Reamde is a speculative fiction novel by Neal Stephenson, published in 2011. The story, set in the present day, centers on the plight of a hostage and the ensuing efforts of family and new acquaintances, many of them associated with a fictional MMORPG, to rescue her as her various captors drag her about the globe. Topics covered range from online activities including gold farming and social networking to the criminal methods of the Russian Mafia and Islamic terrorists. ([Source][1])
It's been a while since I read this, but I think back on little details like nefarious dealings on Russian private jets, secret routes to Canada, and the city kid going back to the rural re-u surprisingly often.
Diane Steele, Ian Fleming, and 998 monkeys are given 1000 typewriters. They're then told that their target demographic is male incel nerds.
Phew -- this one took me a while. I love Neal Stephenson's classics -- Diamond Age, Snow Crash -- but this book is nothing like those. It's more like a tech-literate adventure novel. Lots of flying around different countries, flying under the radar, and flying around in-game.
I liked Snow Crash.
LOVED The Diamond Age.
Loved Cryptonomicon.
Completely bounced off of the Baroque cycle. In the first book, at about page 300, I was still bored. Asked a friend about it. They said "It's really good once it picks up, at about page 500". I set is aside, and decided that Neal had lost it.
Looking at the 1,026 pages of Reamde, I assumed it wouldn't interest me, but friends raved about it. I finally downloaded a preview, that hooked me, and I bought the book. And I really enjoyed it! It's a roller coaster ride.
Yes, it has infodumps. Yes, it's competence porn. But thoroughly fun.
Looked like a good techno-thriller at the beginning, but the last 1/3 was a stupid mountain chase.
Stephenson really knows how to tell a story. Some of the plot twists are a bit unbelievable, but you just can't put the book down.
I didn't enjoy this at all and I'm kind of surprised that so many people have.
The plot seems to have been constructed by rolling many-sided dice to determine characters and complications for each chapter [7 = Spy: 12 = Trolls (mythological); 4 = Mercenary: 1 = Computer Virus; 6 = Tech Tycoon: 10 = BEARS!] The result is less of a narrative arc, more of a narrative EKG.
Character genders, at least, were not randomly assigned so that everyone to live through the adventure could land in a nice heteronormative relationship with another character, despite have endured horribly stilted dialogue with one another for more than 1,000 pages.
Stephenson seems to have thoroughly researched weapons, MMORPGs, massive chunks of geography foreign and domestic, inner workings of Russian organized crime and several intelligence agencies, navigation at sea, Internet security, and laws of international airspace. None of that research goes to …
I didn't enjoy this at all and I'm kind of surprised that so many people have.
The plot seems to have been constructed by rolling many-sided dice to determine characters and complications for each chapter [7 = Spy: 12 = Trolls (mythological); 4 = Mercenary: 1 = Computer Virus; 6 = Tech Tycoon: 10 = BEARS!] The result is less of a narrative arc, more of a narrative EKG.
Character genders, at least, were not randomly assigned so that everyone to live through the adventure could land in a nice heteronormative relationship with another character, despite have endured horribly stilted dialogue with one another for more than 1,000 pages.
Stephenson seems to have thoroughly researched weapons, MMORPGs, massive chunks of geography foreign and domestic, inner workings of Russian organized crime and several intelligence agencies, navigation at sea, Internet security, and laws of international airspace. None of that research goes to waste whenever the dice landed on a given topic.
Despite ALL OF THAT, I'm adding one star because Reamde moves well. I can't believe how many times I accidentally scoffed aloud and still continued on. All eye strain was from rolling my eyes, not reading, and still I didn't put it down. That must mean something.
If Stephenson had rolled whatever combination required for 'CONCLUSION' 500 pages earlier, I might have gone as high as 3 stars.
I am now convinced I could run a Russian mafia organization, an Islamic terrorist cell, and a MMORPG. Reamde let's you think you understand the story, and then layers another story into the massive lasagna of plot. Another great Stephenson novel.
Hard to put down.
Wow, it is mammoth and huge and did take a little bit to get into, but when it got going, it really went. There is no way this book should hold together, a vast series of improbable events and coincidences with an impossible cast of characters who come together, split apart, then all somehow get back together, but I couldn't stop. It all comes to a crashing conclusion over a epic 100 page running battle (a book like this can't just have a simple shootout) featuring humans and wild animals. Ok, it all sounds completely crazy now but it was a great read.
This book was not quite what I expected from Stephenson, but I really enjoyed it.. More 'thriller with a touch of tech' instead of scifi, at times the writing style reminded me of William Gibson, which is not bad at all.
This was the least 'gimmicky' Stephenson book in awhile... The Baroque Cycle blended major historical figures with fiction, Anathem had the irritating invented language, but Reamde (once you get past the [sic] title) is pretty straight-ahead.
Stephenson's endings often feel a little slapdash, and this one too felt a bit anticlimactic. There were so many characters that bringing resolution to all of their intertwining arcs was bound to be problematic.
Great book overall. I appreciated the exhaustive detail, the description of events from multiple perspectives, and the complexity of the story line. Some real big moments of good or bad luck were required to propel the story, but suspending my disbelief was easy enough.
Others complain about the representation of Islamic terrorists as in some respects racist or otherwise discriminatory. The fact of the matter is, many different ethnic groups are presented to the reader, not just Muslims. I would argue that the representations of Russians and Chinese is just as potentially racist as the description of Muslims. The issue of race and racism in the book is far more nuanced than Stephenson simply picking on Muslims.
One thing I did appreciate was the nuances with which the "Jihadists" were treated. The Jihadists were actually a rather diverse group of people, including North American born and even white people. This …
Great book overall. I appreciated the exhaustive detail, the description of events from multiple perspectives, and the complexity of the story line. Some real big moments of good or bad luck were required to propel the story, but suspending my disbelief was easy enough.
Others complain about the representation of Islamic terrorists as in some respects racist or otherwise discriminatory. The fact of the matter is, many different ethnic groups are presented to the reader, not just Muslims. I would argue that the representations of Russians and Chinese is just as potentially racist as the description of Muslims. The issue of race and racism in the book is far more nuanced than Stephenson simply picking on Muslims.
One thing I did appreciate was the nuances with which the "Jihadists" were treated. The Jihadists were actually a rather diverse group of people, including North American born and even white people. This might actually contradict the common racial stereotypes of Islamic extremists. Further, Stephenson does make rather plain that these jihadists are extremists, not your "every day" muslim.
This is not to excuse Stephenson of any discrimination, stereotyping or other racializing mis-steps, but rather to suggest that it is hard to argue that he his picking on a single racial/ethnic group. Any discriminatory or racializing mis-steps taken by Stephenson are not isolated to Islam, and are more nuanced than a simple stereotype. Any critique of is treatment of "race", ethnicity, and religion needs to explore the more subtle ways these issues are manifest.
Some others have criticized the very choice of Islamic extremists, as if pandering to the post-9/11 milieu. I would argue that the choice of Islamic extremists seems to make sense given the general state of global politics. If one were to pick an internationally organized group what might be interested in launching an attack on the United States in the last two decades or so, a group of radical muslims seems a reasonable choice. What are the odds of an internationally organized group of radical Jews, Turks, or Spaniard, launching an attack on the US? Pretty slim (of course, there are plenty domestic, non-islamic acts of terror, but I think Stephenson was really interested in exploring a globally organized group).
Much longer than it needed to be. Too much emphasis on nothing going right (I literally reached a point were every time someone took an action I could usually predict how it was going to go awry). Lack of agency in the protagonists as they seem to bounce from one unexpected event to another. And a completely unrealistic cougar.
Started out with an interesting premise, but turned into a typical "lets chase the kids through the cities and jungle and have a shootout" kind of story. Saving grace is that there is an atypical story framework that involves the world of online gaming.
An engaging techno-thriller which manages to keep the reader interested across its 1000 pages. The end is a wonderful example of how storylines weave together. In the end, however, the plot seems too straightforward to need such elaborate detail and storytelling.
