Reamde: A Novel

Neal Stephenson

Sep 2011 · Sold by Harper Collins

About this ebook

“Stephenson has a once-in-a-generation gift: he makes complex ideas clear, and he makes them funny, heartbreaking, and thrilling.”
—Time

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anathem, Neal Stephenson is continually rocking the literary world with his brazen and brilliant fictional creations—whether he’s reimagining the past (The Baroque Cycle), inventing the future (Snow Crash), or both (Cryptonomicon). With Reamde, this visionary author whose mind-stretching fiction has been enthusiastically compared to the work of Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo, Kurt Vonnegut, and David Foster Wallace—not to mention William Gibson and Michael Crichton—once again blazes new ground with a high-stakes thriller that will enthrall his loyal audience, science and science fiction, and espionage fiction fans equally. The breathtaking tale of a wealthy tech entrepreneur caught in the very real crossfire of his own online fantasy war game, Reamde is a new high—and a new world—for the remarkable Neal Stephenson.

Ratings and reviews

A computer virus gets everything started, we meet members of the Russian mafia and some jihadists, fly on a private jet to China (and back from the Philippines), and get stranded on drifting boats. Lots of fast-paced cliffhangers later, we find everyone focused on the Pacific Northwest for a nail-biting finale. Rather than imagining some near-future, Stephenson makes up a captivating thousand-page chase set in the present day.

Loved it. It is possible to get a little bit bogged down in the last two hundred pages since the setting ( normally a strong point in Stephenson's work) gets a bit vague, but the shoot out is exciting enough to pull you through it. There is much validity detail for us gun nuts, and an intriguing next generation MMO that oil my opinion needs to new developed with Stephenson at the story line helm, but only if it doesn't interfere with his novel production. Exciting, insightful, and habit forming. A+

I thought this would spend more time exploring the virtual game world, but it was mostly a conventional thriller. A good read nonetheless. It's taken me a while to get through due to lack of reading time and it gets a bit confusing when you come back to some characters after a hundred odd pages. I found I lost track a bit, but that would be less of a problem if you are reading it quicker.

About the author

Neal Stephenson is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the novels Termination Shock, Fall; or, Dodge in Hell, The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. (with Nicole Galland), Seveneves, Reamde, Anathem, The System of the World, The Confusion, Quicksilver, Cryptonomicon, The Diamond Age, Snow Crash, Zodiac, and the groundbreaking nonfiction work In the Beginning...Was the Command Line. He lives in Seattle, Washington.