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Reamde

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Reamde

By: Neal Stephenson
Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
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About this listen

“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.

©2011 by Neal Stephenson. (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved. Adventure Crime Fiction Fiction Science Fiction Thriller & Suspense Fantasy Exciting Funny Suspense Espionage Thriller Russia China

Critic Reviews

“Stephenson...delivers a sprawling thriller that shows him in complete control of his story.” (Publishers Weekly)

“Noir futurist Stephenson returns to cyberia with this fast-moving though sprawling techno-thriller...Who’ll prevail? We don’t know till the very end, thanks to Stephenson’s knife-sharp skills as a storyteller. An intriguing yarn—most geeky, and full of satisfying mayhem.” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)

“Sometimes when you’re reading Neal Stephenson, he doesn’t just seem like one of the best novelists writing in English right now; he seems like the

only one.” (Lev Grossman, Time)
All stars
Most relevant
Clever and engaging, Stephenson has done it again! Love the thoughtfulness of fleshing out some online ideas

Great modern romp with MMO flavours and well tied together

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Not one of Neal Stephenson’s better books, but entertaining enough.
Well read, apart from the risible foreign accents and mispronounced names.

So, so.

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starts very interesting, then becomes a run-of-the-mill action story. wasted potential, way too long.
still enjoyable.

too long, wasted potential

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I enjoyed the book.. It's a crazy adventure that really sucked me in 😊 but it wasn't quite as good as some of his others!

Interesting but not as good as his others

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I liked most of this book, interesting, fun intriguing lots of characters but the the end scene was like a confusing 6 hr shootout that left me confused and failed to hold my attention.

80% Great

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The multiple characters are unique and intersect in interesting ways. At various points you think you know how the story will progress but it then takes a turn. loved it.

Characters Galore

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I have only read one Neal Stephenson novel, The Diamond Age and was as totally blown away. A masterwork of speculative sci-fi, it is equal to anything from the genres golden age and based on this one novel I would rank Stephenson right up there with the masters, like Asmiov, Heinlein, Silverberg, Dick, Le Guin, Clarke, Simack and so forth. This was many years back now and while I meant to read more of his work I didn't. Until now.

Reamde is a techo-thriller based (partly) around a video game called T'Rain. There are Chinese hackers, Russian mobsters, crazed jihadists and a likeable cast of anti-heroes, all of whom find themselves thrown in the deep end and swimming desperately as they try to do the right thing. It's crammed full of geek detail and decently developed characters and fair rips along.

Ok, I did have some problems with Stephenson's female characters, all strong and intelligent and heroic but his ideas about female sexual mores and desire felt a little inauthentic. As for the plot, bloody brilliant but as we neared the end it all sort of petered out. Yes, it was obvious where it was going and obvious was where it went. Shame about that, but while the best of it lasted, Reamde was informative, fun and exciting.

Stephenson reminds me a little of Robert Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land), a bloody brilliant writer of libertarian tendencies whose characters were often nothing more than vehicles for the promulgation of Heinlein's world view. This could get a little tiresome and as Heinlein got older his work become work, as in hard. Stephenson has something of this quality in his writing though he is far less strident than Heinlein and a little more circumspect with his proselytising.

Mostly but Not Quite

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as all other stories by Neal Stephenson loved it to bits. it is great book. it has bits of humor, espionage, romance, gunshots, tech, gaming, private jets... everything yoy may think of.

Give me more of that

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Loved the book and the audio version is excellent as well. I Highly recommend it.

Simply fantastic

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A great weaving story crossing continents and cultures in fast paced techno adventure
With a great reader

Fantastic read never a pauseGreat characters

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