Reamde: A Novel by Neal Stephenson (Epub)

Description

“Stephenson has a once-in-a-generation gift: he makes complex ideas clear, and he makes them funny, heartbreaking, and thrilling.”

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.

User’s Reviews

Amazon.com Review Amazon Best Books of the Month, September 2011: Neal Stephenson is quite rightly known as a writer of ideas, but don’t put it past him to pen a straightforward thriller. True, the plot of said thriller hinges on a massively multiplayer online game that’s a step beyond what’s actually available on the Internet circa 2011, but that’s as far as the sci-fi goes. Enter “REAMDE,” an online virus that brings together a super-rich CEO, a Chinese hacker, a rogue Russian mafioso, an assimilated East African beauty, an itinerant Hungarian software programmer, two insanely prolific fantasy writers, and guns, guns, guns. (The book features so much firepower that Stephenson enlisted what he calls a “ballistics copy editor.”) It takes a veritable master of pacing to make a thousand pages feel like barely a third of that, but Stephenson is that master; his breakneck narrative starts fast and never, ever lets up. As such, Reamde is as likely to turn off fans of his more cerebral fiction as it is to gain him scads of new devotees. Regardless, it marks an inimitable highlight of this year’s thriller roster. –Jason Kirk Review “What ever happened to the great novel of ideas? It has morphed into science fiction, and Stephenson is its foremost practitioner. A-”

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ There is so much to like about Neal Stephenson. If you’ve never read him, get started asap. He’s hilarious. He’s insightful. He meticulously researches his material (or either knows it already or does an amazing job making it all up). He tends to write more in the speculative space: Cryptonomicon is speculative history to some degree, while Anathem takes place somewhere totally made up. Reamde takes place in the world today and is mostly populated by people like the ones you know or read about in the news. Sadly, this created a huge problem for me.First, let me come right out and say that I’m grading this on the Stephenson scale. Even though I’ve given it three stars, it’s probably better than whatever you’re reading now. And maybe more accessible than some of Neal’s other books. His writing is crisp, snappy, and sarcastically witty. His characters have depth and personalities beyond just the decisions they make, which you don’t see too often in plot driven stories these days. So basically, if you are in the mood for a thriller, this is a pretty good one. But…, if you are in the mood for something on the scale of his previous books, you’re going to be disappointed, and I think I know what the problem is.One of Neal Stephenson’s special gifts is telling a story while at the same time providing reams of information about whatever subject matter he may be tackling. The way he slips all this information in is masterful in that a less experienced hand would almost certainly kill the momentum of the story. When you are reading about pretend histories in the Baroque Cycle, or WWII in Cryptonomicon, or alternate realities in Anathem, this tactic grounds what you’re reading to something believable, and extends that reality to the risks the characters have to navigate. Reamde succeeds in doing this same thing, except the world Stephenson is fleshing out is Walmart, computer hackers, terrorism, and a World of Warcraft knockoff. Okay, the China stuff was cool. But my point is, I don’t need so much information on this type of stuff to get through the story. Terrorism is a daily news feature these days and Walmart is something I try to ignore as I drive by every day. Once more, having been a WOW consumer for many years (along with huge swaths of the population), some of the info on the fictional game in the book, T’Rain, just came across as unbelievable and silly. This stuff might work on my parents, but not me, I’ve been there.And the story. If the story was amazing, all would be forgiven. But the story is not amazing. It isn’t bad, it gets the job done, it’s like an elaborate but forgettable episode of the A-Team – you aren’t angry about it, but you aren’t excited about it either. A lot of the narrative relies on chance, both to get characters in and out of trouble, which totally happens in real-life, probably more so than otherwise in fact, but does take a little umph out of the characters decisions.Characters are good though. I enjoyed reading about all of them, bad guys too. Good stuff there. And I did have a good time reading this. But it just isn’t a great book. And for better or worse, when I read Neal Stephenson, I’m expecting a great book.

⭐ I love Stephenson books ever since I stumbled on Diamond Age quite some time ago. Even so, I’ve come to expect multi-thousand word digressions and elaborations in his books that are fun but make it a bit more work to get through. Reamde, however, is perhaps his tautest work, weaving a fresh and exciting plot, the usual swarm of characters and nearly non-stop action leaping around the world. As a result, it’s not as “deep” as Stephenson’s other works, but is easily the most accessible while still being fabulously entertaining. It’s hard to believe that 1,000+ pages can be described as “accessible”, but let me tell you this: I finished reading the book while on a road-trip with my 20-year-old daughter. I knew as soon as I finished it that she would love it, and rather than hand it to her I decided to start reading it to her out loud while she drove. She did love it, and even when we finished the trip and she could have easily read the rest for herself, we decided to keep up with the reading aloud exercise.I’ll let the other reviews here describe the plot and thrust of the story; by the time you’ve made it to this review you already have these general details. I’ll just let you know that if you’re considering this book, either because you’ve heard of Stephenson and are curious to know what the fuss is all about, or if your interest is piqued but you wonder if you have the necessary commitment to start, then I urge you to take the plunge. The first act is interesting as the characters are introduced, including the “character” of the on-line world of T’Rain, but once the second act touches off – quite literally with a bang – you are going to be on a masterful, high-speed adventure. It was almost funny the way my daughter would get wrapped up in one of the sub-plots as I read it to her, and then groan in agony as I’d finish the chapter and we’d suddenly be catching up with the adventures of other characters – only to experience the same agony at the end of that chapter as well. Jump in – the writer is fine!

⭐ This is an interesting one for me. I’ve read a handful of Stephenson’s later books (I still need to hit earlier ones like Snow Crash), and the one thing they all had in common was some over-arching, Really Big Idea that blew your mind, or was deceptively simple but the details and consequences of it blew your mind. Reamde seems to break from that mold in that it is basically just a modern day thriller. But ho boy, this is one damn good thriller.It took me a little while to really get hooked in it. The whole book is a series of first person narratives that take place mostly concurrently in time, but because the cast of characters is so diverse it feels a little disjointed in the beginning. But I persevered and definitely got hooked. I realized how well both the characters and action was written when I found myself stopping at points thinking “who the hell is that guy” or “why does that even matter” or “this is the most ridiculous situation ever” but still feeling compelled to read on and see what happens next.The pacing starts slow but is deliberate, and gradually builds in tempo like a fully loaded freight train, slowly but surely reaching Ludicrous Speed by the time the narratives all come together in space for the big ending clinic.The one aspect that comes close to approaching Really Big Idea status is the logical extrapolation of the big MMO games, and how they might come to shape real world events outside their game scope in our reality. But it’s almost like a side suggestion or an afterthought, as it’s used primarily as a plot device rather than the main thrust of the book. Still a great idea, enjoyable, and good food for thought, but very much takes a sideline to the suspense and action of the story.From almost any other author I would probably give this a 5 star. Coming from Stephenson I can’t help but set a pretty high bar, so a solid 4 stars it is.

⭐ I am a Neal Stephenson fan! But this is the book that puts together the best aspects of his storytelling. It is an engaging story that takes place in the real world. There are extraordinary characters, traveling to far-flung, interesting places. It is a crazy, mixed-up story that makes sense. When I want to recommend a Stephenson book to someone who has never read him, this is the book I recommend. If they don’t like this book, they will never like any of his other books. Read this book to experience a master storyteller weaving one of his best, most coherent stories.

⭐ OMG!!… a sci-fi author of the same calibre as Frank Herbert (Dune) -at last!!!- with whom he can stand on par not only in style but also depth of research, imagination and sheer story telling power. I stand humbled and grateful for the immense joy of reading a true masterpiece that proudly stands on the row of my favorite books, next to “Cryptonomicon” or “Chapter House Dune” or “Seveneves”…Sure, go and read a sample of the “top” reviewers, two or three will do and then say you don’t agree with the fact that all that negative prattle sounds a bit “off”, almost like they had to push hard to create lines such as “Not up to his old standard” or “A pale ghost of the old Stephenson” in order to submerge it in praise while criticizing a lack of this or that. But what can you do when trying to find fault with a true master except dare make ridiculous comments of the likes as “characters lack both depth and idiosyncrasy” which lose all meaning after a thousand pages of pure unadulterated action.I will concede it seems aimed at a younger public and also primed to be turned into an action movie, which I fervently wish will happen some day, as it will easily rival any “Star Wars” or “Hobbit” flick provided it is directed by a Spielberg, Lucas, Cameron, Scott or Besson.

⭐ For starters it took me awhile to get the name of the book correct in my head. As an amateur computer geek I have seen more than my share of readme.exe files over many years so that name is etched into my brain. It took me several chapters to realize that I had been transposing the letters without even thinking from Reamde to Readme. But this was but one of the smaller psychological games that Stephenson plays. Anyone who has read Stephenson’s novels knows that he is highly detailed in his story telling. This brings the reader right into the story and is why I am a big fan of his works.For those who are fans of World of Warcraft or online multiplayer games an extra treat is in store for you in this book. For me though, I was more interested in the real story and read through the T’Rain sections more quickly. That story is suspenseful and full of plot twists along with pages and pages of details that should keep you thoroughly entertained.

⭐ I have to say that at first, I had a little trouble getting into this book. Expecting the type of story I’d usually read through in a day, I was a bit put off when, after 3 days of reading, my Kindle told me I was at about 65%. But getting over the very slow build up, as the author slowly weaves what seem at first to be disparate threads of a story together, I found myself finally hooked as I started to realize how it was all going to fit together. And I once the tapestry was finally complete I couldn’t help but be impressed by, and appreciative of, the care and effort that had been put forth to craft this marathon of a novel. Weaving together the technological aspect and the action-filled espionage, Stephenson has created another unique and wonderful book that is well worth the effort the reader must invest before experiencing the payoff for all their time and effort.

⭐ While this book has some, repeat some, redeeming factors, it mostly needs major cutting by a good editor. It’s politics are problematic for anyone to the left of survivalists, and it is incredibly uneven in its flow. I came close to giving up on it many times, but decided just to finish the damn thing to be done with it. Neal, you really let us down with this one.

⭐ Would I recommend this book to a friend? If so, why?I would recommend this to my more technical friends, but I do not think it would be as exciting for those who are less technical or do not enjoy technical things (computers, games, decentralized currency, etc.) but the story alone may keep people’s interests. It has spies and other items that people may enjoy.What was one of the most memorable moments of Reamde?The introduction of a new character who was spying on another party which all became a tangled mess when all people collide in one big story event.Which character – as performed by Malcolm Hillgartner – was my favorite?I thought the russian members were done very well by the narrator of the story. Great job overall.Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved me?Most of the characters were very well developed and I enjoyed some of the romance and relationships the author developed, so at times when things went bad in these events were moving to me.

⭐ This was a roller coaster ride of a book. I was expecting something more sci-fi, but it was really more of a modern day thriller than anything. Very relatable, interesting characters with a fair number of points of view to deal with. For a 1000+ page book this moves very quickly. If you’re looking for a thriller with hackers, MMO billionaires, Russian mobsters, “security” consultants, Chinese gold farmers, spies, international terrorists, and surprisingly resourceful Iowa-raised farmers this is the book for you. Heck of a diverse and entertaining cast. The climax of the book honestly seemed to get in its own way a little bit with so many different characters to manage all converging. It was a fun read.

Keywords

Free Download Reamde: A Novel in Epub format
Reamde: A Novel Epub Free Download
Download Reamde: A Novel 2011 Epub Free
Reamde: A Novel 2011 Epub Free Download
Download Reamde: A Novel Epub
Free Download Ebook Reamde: A Novel