The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. (The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., #1)

by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland

You think you know how the world works? Think again.

21st Century America

Magic has faded from the minds of mankind, until an encounter between Melisande Stokes, linguistics expert at Harvard, and Tristan Lyons, shadowy agent of government, leads to the uncovering of a distant past.

After translating a series of ancient texts, Melisande and Tristan discover the connection between science, magic and time travel and so the Department of Diachronic Operations – D.O.D.O. – is hastily brought into existence. Its mission: to develop a device that will send their agents back to the past, where they can stop magic from disappearing and alter the course of history.

But when you interfere with the past, there’s no telling what you might find in your future…

Written with genius and complexity, this vividly realised novel will make you believe the impossible, and question the very foundations of the modern world.

• ISBN13: 9780008132569
• Publish Date: 15 June 2017 (first published 13 June 2017)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 25 July 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: The Borough Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 768
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.co.uk

Reviews

[wyvernfriend]

slogged through this Honestly by the end I didn't care.  This has taken me ages to finish and if it wasn't for a flu and determination I'd have a sneaking suspicion this would never have been finished.
 
I've seen a lot of reviews where people either love it or dislike it, very little middle ground on this one (so if you're reading it and you're meh about it, just move on)
 
Basic plot is a medieval linguist recruited into a secret government organisation who work with witches to do time travel and when they annoy the wrong person it all goes very pear shaped.
 
It's clever but I just didn't feel a lot of joy in reading it, more I wanted it to be done. 

[remo]

Neal Stephenson es otra de mis debilidades, a pesar de que, incomprensiblemente, no encuentro el momento de meterme con su ciclo barroco, tras haber AMADO el criptonomicón. D.O.D.O es una novela extensa, inmensa, oceánica, que decide entre seis caminos y toma los seis, que encuentra vericuetos en los que expandirse, que oscila entre el narrador, la carta manuscrita, el email, la entrada en el diario, el whatsapp y casi la telepatía para hacer avanzar la historia. Una historia, por otra parte, que comienza como una novela de ciencia ficción y toma un derrotero peculiar en la primera curva.
En general me ha gustado mucho. Los personajes, la historia y el desarrollo. Y el humor de los personajes y los diálogos. Hay un trozo de unas 100 páginas pasada la mitad de la novela que me aburrió soberanamente, digámoslo todo, y que ha hecho que tarde dos meses en acabarla en vez de una semana. Pero luego levanta el vuelo de nuevo y acaba con brío. La ausencia de la quinta estrella es por ese trozo aburrrido, primera vez que me pasa con Stephenson.

[Beth C.]

It pains me to give a 700-page novel that I finished and gave me carpal tunnel in thumb a 2-star rating. And when I say "pains", I mean it in the literal (the thumb) and the figurative (700 PAGES) senses. I wanted to love this book. I walked by it in the bookstore over the period of a few days, glancing at it, reading the page jacket, looking over my shoulder at it as I left the store wondering if I should have purchased it. Finally, I did. And I feel like I have been reading it for months.

The characters fell flat for me - there didn't really seem to be a whole lot of connection. And that goes for the connection between them in the book, and the connection to the reader. The story had an interesting premise, but it got bogged down in places where there was just *too much*. Of everything. Storylines, characters, places, acronyms...you name it, it was probably too much.

I got the impression at the end that this may not be the only DODO book to be created. I can say with some certainty that I will not be reading any follow-ups. My thumb and I deserve better.