Reamde (Nova (Ediciones B))

by Neal Stephenson

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2012 BEST THRILLER OF THE YEAR- CWA IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2012 WARWICK PRIZE FOR WRITING

Across the globe, millions of computer screens flicker with the artfully coded world of T'Rain - an addictive internet role-playing game of fantasy and adventure. But backstreet hackers in China have just unleashed a contagious virus called Reamde, and as it rampages through the gaming world spreading from player to player - holding hard drives hostage in the process - the computer of one powerful and dangerous man is infected, causing the carefully mediated violence of the on-line world to spill over into reality.

A fast-talking, internet-addicted mafia accountant is brutally silenced by his Russian employers, and Zula - a talented young T'Rain computer programmer - is abducted and bundled on to a private jet. As she is flown across the skies in the company of the terrified boyfriend she broke up with hours before, and a brilliant Hungarian hacker who may be her only hope, she finds herself sucked into a whirl of Chinese Secret Service agents and gun-toting American Survivalists; the Russian criminal underground and an al-Qaeda cell led by a charismatic Welshman; each a strand of a connected world that devastatingly converges in T'Rain.

An inimitable and compelling thriller that careers from British Columbia to South-West China via Russia and the fantasy world of T'Rain, Reamde is an irresistible epic from the unique imagination of one of today's most individual writers.

• ISBN10: 0857894188
• ISBN13: 9780857894182
• Publish Date: 20 September 2011
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Atlantic Books
• Edition: Main
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Pages: 300
• Language: English

Reviews

[lisacee]

I'd give this one and a half stars, if possible. I have tried reading this book three times and in both print and audio, but it just kept going...

I made it through 12 of the 32 discs and Stephenson was still introducing new characters. I cared about the core group of people, mostly Zula, her uncle, and the large-footed woman, but the story just got too intricate and I didn't care enough to keep going with it.

I heard great reviews of this book and I really wanted to like it, but it seemed like the author just couldn't decide what the story was about.

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

I don’t normally read books that are over 1000 pages and after reading Reamde, I’m a little reluctant to read something this big again. Not that there was anything wrong with this book; but sitting at over 1100 pages, it was a big task chipping away through this book. Neal Stephenson provides a story full of nerdism, thrills and a lot of action, dipping into aspects of organised crime and terrorism. My first thought of this book was the MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) game that this book is based around; every aspect of this game is covered in this book. It takes all the aspects he liked about World of Warcraft and gave it a face lift, threw out all the parts he didn’t like, even going to the extent of making the world geographically accurate for people interested in mining. But the underlining reason for T’Rain, is the gold farming market; while Blizzard tries to crack down on farming, this game is based around a potential money laundry scheme. While T’Rain was created for sinister reasons, the creation of the game and the employee of popular fantasy writers turned the game into a huge success. Just reading about this game made me want to play it. This game serves as a background for the main plot in Reamde.

While there is a lot happening in Reamde, the main plot is centred around a virus, which encrypts files and hold them for ransom for T’Rain gold. This virus affects a computer containing sensitive documents of the Russian Mob, who do not wish to pay the ransom but set out to hunt down the people behind the virus and make an example of them. Along the way many people become involved including the T’Rain founder, a T’Rain employee, some Chinese gold farmers/hackers, a Russian mercenary, a Hungarian hacker, the CIA, MI6 and some international terrorists.

While I enjoyed the ride that Reamde took me on, I can’t help thinking that there is a lot of fat that needs to be trimmed. I’m not sure if being a bestselling author Neal Stephenson had the freedom to fatten this book up, or the editors didn’t do a good job, or they intentionally left the book this long; but I think that this book could haveeasily been turned into a 700-800 page novel without losing any of the plot. While this book was really enjoyable for a nerd like me, I still can’t help but wonder; does it need to be this big?

[remo]

Fantástica y espectacular novela de aventuras. Espías, mercenarios, MMORPG, terroristas y muchas otras cosas metidas a presión en 990 páginas de novelón que pasan volando. Me ha encantado.

[arronkau]

Despite the fact that one of Stephenson's novels includes a character who drives around with a thermonuclear bomb in the saddlebags of his motorcycle, this is the most implausible of his books I've read.