Stephen reviewed Fall; or, Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson
Some nice bits, but too long
3.0 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!
