Atmosphæra Incognita

by Neal Stephenson
97 pgs

I haven't read much by Neal Stephenson, but what I have, I've really enjoyed, enough so that I have several more of his books sitting on the bookshelf right now, yet to be read. The reason they're still to-be-read, is because I feel like I need to prepare myself sufficiently before I start each of his books. For one, they're usually door stoppers, at around 1,000 pages each. But they're also dense and cerebral books, full of big ideas that I worry could potentially cause a brain aneurysm in a a person like me, if I'm not prepared beforehand.

So, I was interested to see what Stephenson could accomplish with a story less than 100 pages long. Atmosphæra Incognita is about the building of a 20-kilometer-high tower in the Nevada desert. The purpose of the tower is given, but it's not an important part of the story, nor are the limited characters it contains. What Stephenson instead focuses on in the few pages he uses is the architectural innovation needed to realistically build a structure that reaches into space.

Atmosphæra Incognita is an interesting read, but not the one I'd recommend for an introduction to his work. For that, do some mental stretches and calisthenics and then pick up one of his fictional tomes.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.

by Neal Stephenson & Nicole Galland
752 pgs

The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. is a collaboration between Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland. While I've never read anything by Galland before, I have read one of Stephenson's books: Reamde. And based on it, I was expecting a book full of big ideas that would entertain me while it made me think. Stephenson's books are smart, serious, modern Science Fiction tomes, and Galland has made a name for herself more recently with her historical fiction books. The marriage of the two authors produced a child that is smart, entertaining, and oftentimes light-hearted and fun.

At its core, the book is a time travel story. Tristan Lyons oversees the U.S. Government's "Department of Diachronic Operations," a small, underfunded department that the government hopes will soon play a major role in ensuring the country's future military dominance. Tristan recruits Melisande Stokes, a Harvard linguist, to translate ancient documents having to do with magic. She learns that magic is real and once prevalent. Witches used to perform it by accessing alternate realities and influencing decisions and outcomes from the different realities to reach desirable outcomes. Now, there is only one witch left and she works for D.O.D.O. D.O.D.O. wants to use their witch to send Melisande, and eventually, other agents back in time in order to "nudge" the timeline in a more favorable direction for the country.

The story is a little reminiscent of the movie Groundhog Day, as Mel and others are sent back repeatedly to specific moments in the past to try to convince people to make different decisions or to do things differently. They must learn from their failures in order to increase the likelihood of success on their next trip, sometimes dozens of times until they achieve their goals.

I had a lot of fun reading D.O.D.O. Time travel stories are usually entertaining because of the never-ending possibilities. And this one didn't disappoint. I'm pretty confident I could tell what each author brought to the story-telling process. And based on that, I plan to continue reading Stephenson's books and will start reading Galland's.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Reamde

Reamde by Neal Stephenson

Reamde is the first book by Neal Stephenson that I've read. I had considered reading others of his books before but until now, I hadn't. I think it was due to a sense of intimidation. First of all, his books are long, (Reamde is 1,000+ pages) which means they're a commitment. Also, From the little I knew about his books, I was pretty sure most of it would go right over my head. I had heard that Stephenson is a very cerebral author and his books usually involve a lot of mathematics or cryptography, or that they require an MIT graduate's understanding of computers to understand. I thought, if I couldn't follow either of the TRON movies, then there'd be no way to follow one of his books. Finally, I once posted a question on a book blog asking for a recommendation on which Stephenson book was the best and received a response from a fan who's response made me question the mental stability of his readers.

That being said, I kept coming across reviews of Reamde and every one of them said that the book was great, so I decided to take the plunge. The title of the book is derived from the common subject line "Read Me" that usually accompanies an email that's going to infect your computer with a virus. Reamde, as the virus becomes known as in the book, is a computer virus that infects T'Rain, a multiplayer online role-playing game. It has millions of players all over the world and Reamde encrypts its users' computer files and holds them hostage until the user pays a ransom to unencrypt them. With as many players as there are in T'Rain, very quickly after the virus is released it impacts the files of some dangerous people.

The Russian mob, along with the world's most dangerous terrorist become involved in an action-packed chase that jumps from the Pacific Northwest to China, the Philippeans, British Colombia, and other places along the 49th parallel. The characters are well developed (as they should be, given the size of the book) and the plot is captivating. The book moves at a very fast pace which gives it the feel of a book half its size and not once did I feel like any of it was going over my head. Either my preconceived impression I had of Stephenson was incorrect, or I'm brighter than I gave myself credit for being. Either way, I really enjoyed it a lot and am sure it won't be the last book by Stephenson I read.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆