Reamde

No cover

Neal Stephenson: Reamde (2012, HarperCollins Publishers)

1056 pages

English language

Published Aug. 8, 2012 by HarperCollins Publishers.

ISBN:
978-0-06-219149-6
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4 stars (171 reviews)

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])

[1]: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reamde

7 editions

Review of 'Reamde' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

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.

Review of 'Reamde' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

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.

Review of 'Reamde' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

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 …

Review of 'Reamde' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

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.

Review of 'Reamde' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

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 …

Review of 'Reamde' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

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.

Review of 'Reamde' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I find myself questioning how much my appetite for romanticized violence fuels my Neal Stephenson addiction. Does this story really lay it on any thicker than the others? Probably not. What's unusual is the proximity of some of the crazy plot to my everyday life, so perhaps I should thank him for bringing up these questions in addition to entertaining the hell out of me.

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Subjects

  • Fiction, science fiction, general
  • Fiction, suspense