The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.: A Novel

After a brief hiatus due to frustration, I returned to the book and found I had set it aside just before the story got really good again. It ended up a solid 4 stars for me. It’s over-the-top and a bit crazy, and lots of fun. If you press on through the boring, bloated bureaucracy part, that is ;)

I thoroughly enjoyed this fun view of practical magic, exacting science and fumbling politics chasing each other through this delightful version of our everyday domain.
Truly, I need more! How do our faithful linguist come magic defender and her modern knight in political red tape navigate the pitfalls of multiple time knots a-twisting?

I'm of minds in this book. On the only hand, there are pretty some brilliant thoughts with the headaches of surrounding witches with a humungous incompetent bureaucratic machine, particularly while it seems that they could do numerous time tour. Not most effective that, however, I turned into a massive fan of the acronyms and the lingo-speak, particularly while a fancy dress birthday celebration receives advised as though it is a primary military-op or while a sure Lay of Walmart is written. I turned into even mightily amazed at how a lot I loved the daily operations of D.O.D.O. because the whole bureaucratic nightmare went on op after op with inside the past, however what definitely stole the display turned into the labyrinthine plot that underlay the material of time and finance. Or chrominance. Or let's simply name them Fugger's and be executed with it. :) What failed to I like so a lot? Well, it is now no longer that I definitely hated something approximately this book, however the pleasant of the wit in the conversations turned into missing for what must had been a instantly satire/sf/delusion complete of half-a success bumbling alphabet-soup American groups as they get into problem with witches. The strolling gags might have been plenty greater subtle. I felt just like the goal at the back of this novel turned into to be greater handy to pretty much everyone, to have sensible ordinary MC's with regular human failings and urges, to sense heat amidst most of these cool thoughts and the simple incompetence-porn of the bureaucracy, however my funding in Mel or Tristan wasn't that steep. I determined myself treating the complete company as the primary individual and in that regards, I had a brilliant time. The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O kinda gave it away. Who's the primary individual? D.O.D.O, of course. :) Things definitely were given exciting for me while we have been withinside the minutia of the time-tour and the unveiling of the strands of plots inside plots that span over centuries, and I had a brilliant time with all of that. I assume this novel is successful and miss. As a satire, it attempts a piece too hard, as a individual novel, it lacks. As an concept novel, it begins offevolved with a respectable premise after which it receives pretty complex and that ultimately tickled me to death. Certain scenes have been notable and snicker out loud funny. But I've study numerous time-tour books. I've even study numerous time-tour-with-witches books. This one is most effective average. That's now no longer to mention I did not have a terrific time, though! Because I did! I simply would not dare rank this all that excessive amongst them. Unfortunately, through the end, I failed to assume this turned into pretty as desirable as Stephenson's Reamde and that passed off to be my least favored of his works. (I'm a massive fanboy, too.) I cannot say some thing approximately Nicole Galland due to the fact this turned into the primary of hers that I've study. If I needed to make a guess, though, the plot, the acronyms, and the properly bizarre stuff as all Neal. I can be wrong. Probably am. But the ones felt like him

We appear to be residing in a duration in which era journey has captured a sizeable part of the public’s interest, its interest for amusement at least. There are numerous TV collection on at present (that I recognize of) that deal in temporal backs and forth, (I simply cherished Flash Forward numerous years again) and there appear to had been few prolonged durations wherein the shape turned into absent from the airwaves (and wires). It has lengthy been an appealing idea for characteristic films. My private favorites are Time Bandits and Interstellar. Instead of loading up this evaluation with an extensive listing of time-journey associated works. I refer you to this fantastic Wiki access, if you may locate the time. Rod Taylor in a nifty movie model of HG’s conventional tale - seems a chunk adore it turned into supposed to traverse the everglades Occasionally time jumps are used to light up political beliefs approximately the chronological base factor for the ones stories, what the destiny would possibly appear like if this or that maintains on. The Time Machine via way of means of H.G. Wells pops to thoughts for that. Another belief takes an extra positive view. What would possibly a utopian destiny appear like? Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward fills that bill, even though Bellamy makes use of the reasonably-priced tool of the imagined destiny being visited through dream. Samuel Clemens had a cross in a much less political vein with A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. The time journey yarn has been round for an extended time. Nicole Garland - from her site The contemporary access into this lengthy-desired class, The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., gives one of the maximum scrumptious principles I even have ever encountered in a time journey EEE book, hell, in any form of EEE book, merging difficult technological know-how fiction with witchcraft. Melisande Stokes is caught in London in 1851. Thankfully she has left her magazine in a safe-deposit box, in a financial institution she is aware of will persist into the twenty-first century, which is a great thing. Stokes is in severe chance of being caught in that point permanently. (0 bars) Having been transported to this beyond via way of means of an aggregate of era and magic, she is going for walks up towards a deadline. July 2, 1851, is while magic vanished from the earth, (or in her instant case, will vanish) and getting again to her personal time without it's far simply now no longer going to happen. Ticktock. Melisande turned into an accessory prof at Harvard’s Department of Ancient and Classical Languages (or will be. I get so confused.) while she actually ran into Tristan Lyons, an army intelligence man with a shadowy authorities' agency. Meet cute. Turns out he has a unique want for her specific talent set. And so the adventure begins. It seems that numerous historic and now no longer, so historic cultures wrote approximately the lifestyles of magic, (Trust me, this isn't a spoiler.) and Lyons wishes a person to translate those uncommon and fragile materials. Mel and Tristan’s early time collectively is a cute sequence, entailing residing small, plenty of overdue nights in constrained area, and an excessive amount of takeout Chinese. (presumably, there being no takeout Sumerian nearby) So, what befell to magic? Where did it cross? One of the mysteries with inside the EEE book is why magic vanished while it did. Neal Stephenson - from his site - Stephenson insists that the Children of the Corn aren't his Another key participant is quickly added in. Doctor Frank Odd (There isn't any any try, simplest invent?) who has had manner an excessive amount of a laugh with Schrödinger’s cat, and now has a risk to scale up and make a few realistic uses of his theories, like growing an area wherein one is probably capable of solid a spell or two. And in case you intend to perform a little Odd you may want a specialist. any! Enter a crone of a witch, despatched to the venture numerous lifetimes in the past via way of means of a time-traveling Melisande. Still with us? The first 1/3 of the Schrödinger book is quite a few realistic uses natural delight, as we observe Melisande, Tristan, an, the now-transformed (Odd) witch and some others as they discern out what wishes figuring and start to exercise any time journey. In addition to the above named, there's an Irish witch Schrödinger the Elizabethan technology who provides her remark and reporting of activities few realistic uses the shape of letters to her leader. These are scrumptious. Neal Stephenson - from his site - Stephenson insists that the Children of the Corn aren't his Another key participant is quickly added in. Doctor Frank Oda (There isn't anyt any try, simplest invent?) who has had manner an excessive amount of a laugh with Schrodinger’s cat, and now has a risk to scale up and make a few realistic use of his theories, like growing a area wherein one is probably capable of solid a spell or two. And in case you intend to perform a little magic you may want a specialist. Voila! Enter a crone of a witch, despatched to the venture numerous lifetimes in the past via way of means of a time-traveling Melisande. Still with us? The first 1/3 of the ee-e book is quite a whole lot natural delight, as we observe Melisande, Tristan, Oda, the now-transformed (hubba-hubba) witch and some others as they discern out what wishes figuring and start to exercise real time journey. In addition to the above named, there's an Irish witch an the Elizabethan technology who provides her remark and reporting of activities magic, the shape of letters to her leader. These are scrumptious. Neal Stephenson - from his site - Stephenson insists that the Children of the Corn aren't his Another key participant is quickly added in. Doctor Frank Oda (There isn't anyt any try, simplest invent?) who has had manner an excessive amount of a laugh with Schrodinger’s cat, and now has a risk to scale up and make a few realistic use of his theories, like growing a area wherein one is probably capable of solid a spell or two. And in case you intend to perform a little magic you may want a specialist. Voila! Enter a crone of a witch, despatched to the venture numerous lifetimes in the past via way of means of a time-traveling Melisande. Still with us? The first 1/3 of the book is quite a whole lot natural delight, as we observe Melisande, Tristan, Oda, the now-transformed witch and some others as they discern out what wishes figuring and start to exercise real time journey. In addition to the above named, there's an Irish witch magic, the Elizabethan technology who provides her remark and reporting of activities magic, the shape of letters to her leader. These are scrumptious.

Enjoyable for the most part but tedious at times when it deep dives into hard science. The ending is rushed a bit and gives only some satisfaction. The books Unique conceit takes it most of the way. Smart. At times funny. Not going to be a classic but worth a listen. Audio performances are mostly good. Too many readers and they are only given some latitude - direction was not stellar.

What a weird, nerdy adventure. The story takes dives and detours and whatever else it wants on its way to a decent but underwhelming ending. The journey is what it's for though, and what a journey it is, through time, space and bureaucracy. Can't recommend enough if you love weird time and science fiction stories, and a dash of linguistics.

Really liked it. Very detailed, thoughtful, irreverent read. I highly recommend!

Light-hearted time travel romp. Memorable characters, made more so by narration. I read the book first, and recommend both versions.

I really enjoyed the story outline and stuck it out for that reason but uggh this book becomes a mess in the ridiculous inner details and communications of this government agency. I felt like they went off the rails into this painful clutter of the minute by minute back and forth of emails and radio calls.

The only reason I even listened to this book is because scribd charged me a credit for it

Had me at the beginning, had me at the end, got a little muffled in the middle. Neat concept of combining magic, science, and time travel. Read too technical at times, which took away from me enjoying some of the characters. However, the author was able to use that technical nature to create some truly funny scenes. Am I glad I read it? Yes. Did it take forever? Also yes.

Toooooo long. But interesting concept which is well laid out.

I loved it. Very well balanced story. Happy to listen to.

I'm only 1/6 of the way through this and I can't finish it. This guy is terrible at writing women! Magic is done for the first time and all the female lead character can think of is how pretty the witch is and how jealous she is of her?? Give me a break. The female characters seem to just simply "exist" in this book. They have no depth or personality. It's very frustrating to listen to.

After reading several reviews of this book I’m convinced I can make a useful contribution. Even allowing for ‘suspension of disbelief’, in all my many years of reading sci-fi/fantasy I can’t remember ever coming across time traveling as being associated with magic—longevity, yes—but not time travel. And the rules are obviously tinkered to aid the story line: you can’t send yourself in either direction, so someone else has to do it for you….and there are more such ad hoc rules to the game to further the plot. The book contains 5 parts:Part 1. Magic used to be real and disappeared over time; the question is how/why? This Part solves that riddle by blaming science, in general, and photography in particular. The authors’ logic almost made sense—until they absolutely blamed photography. Of all the causes for the disappearance of magic, what has taking pictures got to do with anything? Is it somehow connected to the fear of having your soul captured on paper? Anyway, this Part is mediocre, but not bad.Part 2. Now they have to find a way to construct an environment that will block out the effects of science and allow magic to function again, inside this restricted zone. Now we’re talking heavy science: quantum theory, super magnets, near absolute zero temperatures, etc. And they do it…all by themselves. And this is where the authors assume that we enjoy watching really powerful bureaucrats strut their stuff and demonstrate stupidity in action. I’ve been in the military and I accept the premise that there are stupid people there—but not in charge! When they’re killed off in this story, not only I, but all other characters seem to accept the situation with a savoir faire that verges on insouciance. I also was not entertained by the authors’ assumption that bureaucrats love catchy acronyms. There are plenty of words available for nicknaming the people traveling from one source time to another without making up confusingly un-cute acronyms. I tried ignoring them, but found that the authors were determined to force the issue on almost “every” page.Meanwhile, the only exploit that they conceive of attempting for proof of concept is to go back in time, steal a book and bury it to be found several hundred years later in someone’s backyard in order to make enough money—from the sale of a literary artifact—to self-finance their projects.In sum, this Part reads like the old TV series, “Get Smart”, “McHale’s Navy” and “Hogan’s Heroes”, with slapstick, smart aleck, pseudo erudite politicians and generals dictating who does what, when and how in order to maintain some statutory concept of government/military(?) “discipline”. I almost gave up the book here. And, with all this cumbersome (and silly) give-and-take as they try to create an organization to employ magic, all they can think and do with magic centers around time travel.Part 3. We continue with the construction, and improvement, of the “magic” environment—scientifically constructed to be free of the influences of science—we see the “time police” being formed. This perked my interest some. Not so much dwelling on what these stereotypes do here, so much as realizing that, in all the really good sci-fi “time patrol” stories, the construction/formation of the time police is never described [check out Andre Norton’s various episodics, like the “Russ Murdock/Time Traders” series; or Fritz Leiber's truly outstanding "Change War" saga ].I can see this book being made into a Netflix sit-com.Part 4. We see the organization falling into place; and we watch the anti-hero villains growing their plans, and manipulating their dupes, in preparation for a) making their own fortunes; b) stopping science in its track to maintain magic “in the air”.We might note here, that references are scattered throughout the book concerning other countries experimenting with this magical time travelling…but we never actually encounter them. Which makes me wonder if they really exist—or if the authors just conveniently ignored them in order to set up the current list of bad guys, who will surely return in further books.Part 5. Here we see all the action come to fruition: all the bad guys masterfully execute their plans and appear to succeed enough to apparently destroy D.O.D.O. ----but don’t. And yet, they’re not caught. In fact, the only people left standing are the bad guys, and the small coterie of the original D.O.D.O. personnel who vow to stop the bad guys “whenever” they appear, and without the help of the government or its funds.In summation, there are some exciting scenes that are well worth the reading—but only a few. My guess is that, if you’re under 20 you’ll really like this book. But if you’re over 50, you will easily find it unsatisfying. It’s all too silly for me.

Excellent book! I love the combination of sci-fi and magic...time travel and witches! A well-written page turner.

I absolutely love it when magic becomes science and this book did it so well. The second half of the book however did not do it for me, it felt like it was dragging on a bit, as if it was pre-emptively being written for a TV series adaptation. I think owuld enjoy the second half of the book much more as a TV series.

Listened to this one on audio with a whole bunch of narrators. Not quite a full-cast performance, but a bunch of different people reading different parts. This was a fun read. Hard science fiction with Stephenson's obsession with life in ancient times. In this one, a mysterious black ops government type hires a linguist to translate many different documents throughout time to uncover what happened to magic in the world and why it disappeared in the mid-1800s. Then thru the "magic" of scifi macguffins, they uncover time-travel with the use of quantum mechanics and the one remaining true witch left in the world. They set about going back in time to bring magic back. It sounds contrived and hokey, and sure it is, but I felt it worked really well and the authors came up with some interesting ideas about the how and why and where of time travel might work. It's a fun read, where they switch back in forth between narrators and different writing styles/methods, from found journals, to chat logs, to interviews. I suspect that Galland did most of the writing, as she has apparently written a sequel (Master of the Revels: A Return to Neal Stephenson's D.O.D.O) that I'll have to look out for.

While it certainly had some gems, this was by far Neal's worst. Seems like he used the theme to ramble on about all his historical grievances, like Kit Marlowe

I couldn't actually get through it

I love time travel, and books about quirky time time travel organizations, so this seemed right up my alley. There's a neat concept about how it all works, and the gradual reveal of what's going on is exciting. In the late middle it bogs down a bit, and I found some of the parts with Blevins pretty harrowing to read (because he's just a skin-crawlingly awful, manipulative dude). But then the plot picks up again, and it's got a nice satisfying ending. The main romance reminds me a bit of [[[The Chronicles of St. Mary's]]], actually. There's a bit of weird vintage sexism here and there, but for the most part the protagonists are a great bunch of people and I always want them to succeed.

Absolutely delightful fun.

Fun story. Witchcraft, time travel, intrigue, all mixed with some classic military thinking snafus.

Time travel and all of its inconsistencies is not my favorite form of speculative fiction, but this is well done. It doesn't completely make 'sense', but the logic at least hangs together on its own terms.

Neal Stephenson's books are always full of interesting ideas, and this one is no exception.

This was fun. If you liked Connie Willis' Oxford Time Travel books, you will probably enjoy this. And vice versa.

Another amazing concept; another great story. Not his best, but Neal Stephenson always gives a good read. The performance of the audio book was also well done.

This latest effort from Neal Stephenson suffers from his usual issues. The story ends just as I start seeing the tale I really want. You don't go into Stephenson works hoping for good character development (and you won't find it here). Not to mention the sex feels tacked-on and unnecessary...

Hilarious caper. "The Lay of Walmart" is excellent. But eventually the book somehow becomes overextended and ends up a bit trivial. On the way, there is some good satire, and some good history.

Somehow they managed to avoid the elephant in the room. Yes, I'm talking about Jesus. They handle the Hitler question (sort of), but somehow fail to mention going back in time to do research on Jesus. That would probably be my first trip, assuming that you could do the research to find him. He seemed to be saying that they got around the butterfly effect with an in-depth analysis of strands, but I don't buy it. People were killed. Major events were changed. In most of these time-travel stories there are major consequences for these actions. I preferred the first part of the book before it all became government controlled and full of acronyms. Still, I thought it was well thought out for the most part. A bit of a cop out at the end as it set itself up for a sequel.

Neal Stephenson is a favorite author but this book is not a favorite. I liked the idea of the story which was to take science fiction and fantasy and squeeze them together in this book about time travel and how the US government attempts to use this to slowly change history through slight changes in the past. It is a good lesson on why we probably should never have time travel. It certainly shows how bureaucracy and politics mess up things. What I did not like; the book was long and employed several narrative techniques such as diaries, text messages, phone calls, beside the usual narration. I was okay with the narration to some extent but it was the parts that could make this book drag on and on. I also totally saw no reason for the frequent use of swear words, especially the one that everyone seems to think is so fun to say. They were entirely unnecessary in the telling of the story.

I'm a sucker for time-travel novels. I like the attempt in this book to pseudo-science an explanation for both magic and time-travel. Honestly, like every Stephenson novel that I've read, it is too long. It is fine but feels like it could have been tightened up some. Still worth the read.

Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland combine to author The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O, a science fiction/fantasy novel. The basic premise (spoiler, but you find it out in the first few pages) is that through history, witchcraft has waned as science advanced. A government research agency finds a way to restore power to witches, and is soon using them to alter history. There’s an underlying romance between two of the characters.The story is told as a series of journal entries, memos, letters, meeting minutes, etc. This style works for the science fiction part, but isn’t very effective at conveying romance, and the romance is such a minor part of things that it almost seems like an afterthought – hey, let’s put some love interesting in here just in case somebody wants to buy the movie rights. The descriptions of bureaucracy ring very true, though – having worked for various bureaucratic organizations I recognized many of the characters. The villains, such as they are, are old white men who are so convinced of their rightness that they don’t recognize disaster until it’s too late.Funny in most spots, tragic in a few. A quick read. Like almost all Neal Stephenson novels, it has an abundance of interesting ideas and an unsatisfying ending. I don’t know anything about the second author (Galland) but I didn’t see anything that was obviously her contribution.