Fall; or, Dodge in Hell, by Neal Stephenson

Some of my favorite books have been written by Neal Stephenson.  At times, his writing borders on brilliance.  But every writer has an occasional down day.  Stephenson had a down year while he was writing Fall; or, Dodge in Hell.  Some of the ideas that start the book are great, potentially.  Fans of Stephenson's prior work will be pleased to see the return of Richard Forthrast, his niece, Enoch Root, and others from Cryptonomicron, Reamde, and other books.  But once you're used to the new manifestations of these characters, and the ideas play themselves out, the bulk of the book is left, and let me tell you, it's a drag.

Stephenson's cool ideas: a fake nuclear attack on a remote American town, orchestrated and reported by social media, triggering panic and leading to a transformation of the internet; the technology of downloading one's mind to a computer; and the core of the story, the creation of a computer-based society for those downloaded mind/souls.

The story turns into a ridiculous recreation of human society with nods to ancient mythology and biblical stories.  Stephenson creates this new history and mythology in this online computer world.  It is so dull it's unreadable.  This history drags on and on, with fewer and fewer looks into the land of the living.  Even the land of the living becomes ridiculous, as the entire power grid becomes strained supplying the power to run the computers to which everyone is getting downloaded.

I kept reading for one reason, as painful as it was: Stephenson has been a great story teller, sos I kept waiting for the payoff.  But 880 pages later, it was nothing but let down.  I couldn't stand it.  But the fact is, next time Stephenson publishes a book, you know I'll read it.  As bad as Fall is, I am not prepared to give up on Stephenson--yet.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!