Stephen reviewed Fall; or, Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson
Some nice bits, but too long
3 stars
I'd put off reading Termination Shock and this based on falling out of love with Stephenson's books. However I really liked TS, and the Kindle free sample was about 150 pages so enough to get me hooked.
I would concur with the other reviews that said "this book is far too long, and the end isn't really worth it". I mean, it's Stephenson, his endings are frequently unsatisfyingly short. This reminds me of the Dreaming Void sequence by Peter F Hamilton. This book contains a separate book inside it which unfortunately feels like a terribly slow fantasy story, although at least with some good jokes. Removing at least half of it would improve everything else.
However I really enjoyed the first half. It has some interesting/amusing ideas of what some bits of society would be like a few decades down the road. I could entirely believe an alt-right โฆ
I'd put off reading Termination Shock and this based on falling out of love with Stephenson's books. However I really liked TS, and the Kindle free sample was about 150 pages so enough to get me hooked.
I would concur with the other reviews that said "this book is far too long, and the end isn't really worth it". I mean, it's Stephenson, his endings are frequently unsatisfyingly short. This reminds me of the Dreaming Void sequence by Peter F Hamilton. This book contains a separate book inside it which unfortunately feels like a terribly slow fantasy story, although at least with some good jokes. Removing at least half of it would improve everything else.
However I really enjoyed the first half. It has some interesting/amusing ideas of what some bits of society would be like a few decades down the road. I could entirely believe an alt-right religion based on thinking Jesus' crucufixion was a conspiracy. I would probably read the first half, and the last chapter again. The end wouldn't make much sense, but it didn't for me this time either!
