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eiridium's review against another edition
5.0
Great fun! A wonderful cast of characters and enough of the usual Stephenson invention to keep your mind grasping to keep up. Perfectly set up for the next in sequence and happy for the staged anticipation.
marrlee713's review against another edition
3.0
Great concept, fun first half, but stalls, falls apart and disappoints in the end. Needed better editing. Lots of plot points or specific, LOOK AT THIS DETAIL IT WILL BE IMPORTANT LATER details that never go anywhere at all. End of the book doesn't resolve the story at all, just sets us up for the sequel. Felt like a big letdown at the end.
keen23's review against another edition
4.0
This may be one of the longest books I read this year, and one of the better ones. It's really enjoyable.
mbpartlow's review against another edition
3.0
I did not finish this book. I made it to about p.300 out of 742.
I thought the premise was fascinating. And the writing is unquestionably good.
But the pace of the book is so slow, it made me stop caring about the characters The initial question of will Melisande be rescued? I stopped caring. For me, there was too much meandering down side paths until the only thing I could relate to was Erszebet's frustration.
I thought the premise was fascinating. And the writing is unquestionably good.
But the pace of the book is so slow, it made me stop caring about the characters The initial question of will Melisande be rescued? I stopped caring. For me, there was too much meandering down side paths until the only thing I could relate to was Erszebet's frustration.
lucardus's review against another edition
3.0
Ein Zeitreiseroman, der unterhaltsam ist, an einigen Stellen nerdig, geekig, aber ingesamt für meinen Geschmack einerseits keine richtige Nähe zu den Identifikationsfiguren bietet (was nicht bedeuten soll, dass ich mit weiblichen Protagonisten ein Problem habe, die Perspektive ist einfach nicht persönlich genug, was mir bei Stephenson oft so geht) und andererseits auch zuwenig Neues zum Thema Zeitreise bietet, damit bei mir ein ähnliches WOW-Erlebnis aufkommt wie es z. B. Seveneves auslösen konnte. Trotzdem eine lohnende Lektüre, die sicher mehr Aha-Erlebnisse für den Mainstream-Leser bietet als für den erfahrenen Geek/Nerd/SF-Fan. Ich würde sagen, wer Reamde (dt. Error, übrigens ein bescheuerter Titel, der den Geek-Gag total unterläuft ...) mochte und wem Anathem und Seveneves zu abgehoben war, kommt sicher besser mit diesem Buch klar. Mir war es ingesamt zu wenig, um hier eine wirklich gute Note zu vergeben.
Und ich kann beim besten Willen nicht sagen, wer hier welche Teile geschrieben hat.
Und ich kann beim besten Willen nicht sagen, wer hier welche Teile geschrieben hat.
biolog_e's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
timinbc's review against another edition
3.0
A: Let's write a book about time travel.
B: Hmm, a lot of those already ..
A: And magic.
B: Hey, maybe that would work.
A: But let's have some fun with it.
B: Like how?
A: Two words: military bureaucracy.
OK, there's a possibility for a good book.
But as always Stephenson seems unable to grasp the idea that many writers actually take out some words in the hope of improving the book. Some writers and ed-i-tors actually hack out whole sections. That needed doing here.
And when you run 750 pages are you going to spend a lot of time sanding and polishing? Nah. You time travel to London and Constantinople, just as most other authors have already done. You have a lot of characters, few of them developed much.
But the story rips along at a good pace. Picking up Vikings is fun; having a long section of Viking poetry not so much. Having them raid a Walmart? All is forgiven.
Having a diary section is OK; having constant crossed-out modernisms is just annoying.
And sure, isn't it annoyed I got at the cheesy Irish witch? Begorrah, I expected a leprechaun next.
The jabs at bureaucracy were overdone, but I did admire the idea of needing ISO 9000 naming for magical skillsets.
Finally, the male & female leads, and the overall attitude, are really remarkably similar to Jodi Taylor's St. Mary's series. I'm not suggesting that it was intentional or even subconscious, because a lot of time travel books seem to carry the same approach, just as a lot of fantasy books have somehow agreed to be Merovingian, all inns and stew and bards and swords and swindlers.
I've seen various opinions on how much of this is Galland, but whatever the answer is, I think this reads better than recent Stephenson solo efforts.
So lookit, just read it fast, and don't try to work out the details, OK? The plot won't stand up to any kind of scrutiny, so just enjoy the story.
If you want time travel, there are quite a few better books. Recently, we've seen Taylor's series, and even Connie Willis's gratingly annoying ones. Overall fun, but if there's a sequel I'll probably skip it.
B: Hmm, a lot of those already ..
A: And magic.
B: Hey, maybe that would work.
A: But let's have some fun with it.
B: Like how?
A: Two words: military bureaucracy.
OK, there's a possibility for a good book.
But as always Stephenson seems unable to grasp the idea that many writers actually take out some words in the hope of improving the book. Some writers and ed-i-tors actually hack out whole sections. That needed doing here.
And when you run 750 pages are you going to spend a lot of time sanding and polishing? Nah. You time travel to London and Constantinople, just as most other authors have already done. You have a lot of characters, few of them developed much.
But the story rips along at a good pace. Picking up Vikings is fun; having a long section of Viking poetry not so much. Having them raid a Walmart? All is forgiven.
Having a diary section is OK; having constant crossed-out modernisms is just annoying.
And sure, isn't it annoyed I got at the cheesy Irish witch? Begorrah, I expected a leprechaun next.
The jabs at bureaucracy were overdone, but I did admire the idea of needing ISO 9000 naming for magical skillsets.
Finally, the male & female leads, and the overall attitude, are really remarkably similar to Jodi Taylor's St. Mary's series. I'm not suggesting that it was intentional or even subconscious, because a lot of time travel books seem to carry the same approach, just as a lot of fantasy books have somehow agreed to be Merovingian, all inns and stew and bards and swords and swindlers.
I've seen various opinions on how much of this is Galland, but whatever the answer is, I think this reads better than recent Stephenson solo efforts.
So lookit, just read it fast, and don't try to work out the details, OK? The plot won't stand up to any kind of scrutiny, so just enjoy the story.
If you want time travel, there are quite a few better books. Recently, we've seen Taylor's series, and even Connie Willis's gratingly annoying ones. Overall fun, but if there's a sequel I'll probably skip it.
testaroscia's review against another edition
4.0
4 stars compared to other Neal Stephenson (otherwise I look back and I think everything is 5 stars...) but could easily be 5 for the sheer readbility. Nicole Garland has managed to tone down the volume of "nerd dump" on the page which makes DODO an ideal starter for Stephenson. The plot develops quickly, unlike some of his other novels, and is a good mixture of inventiveness in a quite crowded field of time travel (i just finished Jodi Taylor) but blends well witches, time travel and secret governmental organizations...
lorendia's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
All the fun of Neal Stephenson without the long didactics about random bits of technology: it was fantastic!
Fun, curious, and mind-bending.
Fun, curious, and mind-bending.