The Rise and Fall of
D.O.D.O. By Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland
Book Review
This book was a real
brick...by brick I mean it was a full 700+ pages long and the hard
cover was a good two inches thick and weighed a ton to tote around
while I was reading it. I was doubtful when I began that I would ever
actually get through it. (Just finishing it is an accomplishment to
me.) That having been said, it was also my first foray into ever
reading something by either of the authors.
The premise of the book
was intriguing... a secret government agency that uses time travel to
try and bring back magic into the world. I had heard of Stevenson
before and wanted to read something by him so I chose this book. My
local library happened to have a nice new copy of D.O.D.O. on the
shelf. This book was not quite what I was expecting (I don't really
know what I was expecting) but I was highly entertained by it even
though the prospect of slogging through 700 pages of it was a bit
daunting. If I didn't have such bad insomnia maybe I would have never
finished it. Keep in mind though I have no other works by either
author to compare it to. I also would not shy away from reading
something else or something previously written by either author in
the future.
Mix up a studious
intellectual type, a straight jacket military type, a bit of romantic
tension, throw in some physics and time travel, a few scheming
witches, romps through historical times such as Puritanical New
England and the smelly streets of 1800's London-in a bawdy house, a
cunning banking family named Fukker-I mean Fugger, and a hilarious
Viking raid on a WalMart and you will have an idea of what to expect
from this book. On it's face its all a bit absurd so you can't be
expecting some serious look at human nature that will astonish
philosophers into the 25th century. The whole premise of
the book is meant as entertainment. If you like plays on words and to
poke fun at corporate seriousness you will smile while reading this
book. It's a bit of irreverent fun without taking itself too
seriously. I rather enjoyed the different forms of getting the story
across- diary entries, journals, letters to an Irish pirate queen
from her trusty spy- the whore, office communications, silly policy
pronouncements, and the odes of Viking warriors. The reader was able
to experience the story from different points of view. But there is
no denying it was a long book, probably too long.
After reading it I looked
at some of the book reviews on Amazon and it seemed that a lot of
people were disappointed by the ending or they were expecting some
earth shattering insights into the human condition from this book. I
thought the ending was appropriate and was satisfied by it, I was not
disappointed in my quest to read for a diversion from the seriousness
of life. The ending did not scream out "sequel" to me like
it did to other people and if the authors choose to write additional
novels about the characters in D.O.D.O. I will decide then if I
desire to read more of them. The ending let me use my imagination
about what the main characters, Tristan and Mel, would be up to now,
and the thought also crossed my mind that it might make an
entertaining T.V. Series.
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| Authors Neal Stevenson and Nicole Galland |
