The last four hours were spent head-down in REAMDE. My rating? 4 out of 5 stars. It’s no “Cryptonomicon”, but it’s also not “The Baroque Cycle”. With all due respect to Stephenson, in this book he got some things right, but quite a number of things wrong.
I saw some semi-clear plot holes, something that I couldn’t even begin to utter about “Cryptonomicon”. The end of the book stretched out forever. Or maybe it was just my desire to be done with it. The characters weren’t as good as his previous work and there was too much storyline that was covered, only to be forgotten and never returned to. (Contrary to the tangents in “Cryptonomicon” or “Diamond Age”, which had an actual purpose.) The MMORPG parts were good, but the interface that was described was not realistic and we didn’t spend enough time in that world. A virtual war of factions was mentioned, and apparently helped some real characters, but Stephenson didn’t delve into it too deeply. The writing was good, but not exemplary: whereas his other books were littered with insightful, quotable and hilarious passages (I literally crack open “Cryptonomicon” in random spots and enjoy the material), REAMDE was lackluster. I had trouble finding a handful of clever quotes, or concepts that made me stop and reconsider some taken-for-granted part of reality.
With REAMDE, Stephenson does something strange: he writes an actual ending. If you’ve read anything else by him, you know that a Stephenson ending is something akin to a wall, sneaking up on a nice, speeding Porsche right in the middle of the road. Something like a Roadrunner cartoon and about as welcome as a tsunami. REAMDE, however, has an actual end, something that attempts to wrap up all of those disjointed story-lines with a satisfying, Hollywood-esque finale. And I said attempts. Because, in my opinion, the story isn’t really wrapped up. Just… finalized. Not as suddenly as “Snow Crash”, for instance… for who could forget a pop-up ad?… but rushed nonetheless.
I keep coming back to this, but it’s true: REAMDE just isn’t as good as Stephenson’s earlier work. Does this mean that the master has lost his touch? I certainly hope not. Maybe it was just the side-effect of working in the action-thriller genre. Who knows.
The book does have the feeling of being a great source for a TV miniseries. Action-filled and usually not dull, I can easily see the plot being something similar to “24″. And at least partially in the same format: about 200 pages (of 920 total) are devoted to a single, hair-raising day. A great chapter. Though, sadly, it is followed up by 50-100 pages of boredom.
I could go on for a bit more, but it’s getting late. Read the book. It’s more “mainstream” than his other works, so maybe that’ll appeal to some. For me, I wish Stephenson would get back to the sci-fi, tech-novels that I fell in love with.