The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. Author: Neal Stephenson, Nicole Galland
Published by: William Morrow
Publication Date: June 13th 2017
Format: eBook
Pages: 768
Source: Purchased
When Melisande Stokes, an expert in linguistics and languages, accidently meets military intelligence operator Tristan Lyons in a hallway at Harvard University, it is the beginning of a chain of events that will alter their lives and human history itself. The young man from a shadowy government entity approaches Mel, a low-level faculty member, with an incredible offer. The only condition: she must sign a nondisclosure agreement in return for the rather large sum of money.
Tristan needs Mel to translate some very old documents, which, if authentic, are earth-shattering. They prove that magic actually existed and was practiced for centuries. But the arrival of the scientific revolution and the Age of Enlightenment weakened its power and endangered its practitioners. Magic stopped working altogether in 1851, at the time of the Great Exhibition at London’s Crystal Palace—the world’s fair celebrating the rise of industrial technology and commerce. Something about the modern world "jams" the "frequencies" used by magic, and it’s up to Tristan to find out why.
And so the Department of Diachronic Operations—D.O.D.O. —gets cracking on its real mission: to develop a device that can bring magic back, and send Diachronic Operatives back in time to keep it alive . . . and meddle with a little history at the same time. But while Tristan and his expanding operation master the science and build the technology, they overlook the mercurial—and treacherous—nature of the human heart.
Neal Stephenson is easily becoming a favorite author, and now Nicole Galland is definitely one I want to see more of. I can’t even tell you how excited I was when I read the blurb for The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. It sounded perfect for me, and it absolutely was!
This is science fiction that includes mystery/thriller with history, science, magic, and my ultimate favorite … time travel! I know, it sounds like it could be really busy and take on too much, but that’s completely false. These two authors spun a truly cool and unique tale that had me hanging on to every word of the 700+ pages. I absolutely love the way they mixed the hard science with witches and their magic and the whole concept of how the time travel works. Also, the historical aspects are phenomenal! It’s almost embarrassing how giddy I was about certain historical figures and events that appeared. Plus, I got the biggest kick out of all the Shakespeare shade – too funny! Oh, and the naked Vikings – hahaha!
Also, the characters are fantastic and I enjoyed what each one brought to the story. Best of all, I laughed quite a bit throughout the book. Some of the humor is so subtle that it made me laugh even more. Seriously, I found it to be highly amusing!
I honestly don’t have one bad thing to say about this book. In fact, I’m smiling right now just thinking about what a good time I had while reading it. 700+ pages went by way too fast.