Review: The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.

The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What do you get when you mix witches, the science of time travel, and secret government agencies? It’s not the start of a bad joke, I promise, it’s a question of what you get with The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. As for what you get, you get chaos. Not the bad kind, the good kind. The kind of chaos that sucks you in and leaves you wanting more, the kind that has you hooked on every page.

I’ve been meaning to read a Neal Stephenson book for quite some time, finding myself curious about a number of his books. The one I most want to read is Seveneves, but as someone else was borrowing it from the library I decided to go for the book second on my list. Thus, I found myself sucked into The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.

I was sucked into this one from the very start, pulled into the nature of the story. A part of me was worried about all the different layers we were being introduced to, unsure if everything would come together well, but my fears were quickly pushed aside. The characters gripped me, the story moved in wonderful ways, and things tied together beautifully. Sure, there were some open aspects at the end, but such is the nature of this kind of story. It could have easily continued forever, with constant changes to history being made, yet it ended in such a way that I was content with the way things played out.

With great characters, plenty of laughs, lots of science, fun magic, and more, this one had so many elements I adored. It was a book I found near-impossible to put down and would have happily powered through it in a single sitting had everyday life allowed for such a thing.

There is no doubt in my mind that I need to read more Neal Stephenson, as The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. has me desperate for more.

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