Reamde
by Neal Stephenson
action
copyright 2011
read in January 2012
rated 8 out of 10: really quite good
Really quite good and really quite thick. Not quite gripping but never boring. Paints the bad guys as fools but is willing to poke fun at the good guys...
Reamde is as wordy as Stephenson's earlier Anathem. In Reamde, however -- something happens. It just takes a lot of words to describe it. Take the bear, for example...
The girl wakes up to hear a grizzly bear sniffing and scratching nearby. She thinks, Uh oh, the bear is attracted to attractive girls. She moves to a ten page flashback, to tell the story of an uncle who told her about bears and women. The flashback includes commentary on conversations, lifestyle, her own upbringing, the uncle's family and beliefs. Back to the present and the girl changes her mind... The bear is only after food scraps lying nearby... So what was the point of the lengthy flashback? No point at all!
Then there's the planning...
Characters don't just do something, they discuss it first. No need for the reader to wonder, Why didn't they choose another action... Every possible action had been considered, analysed and logically selected or rejected...
Which is not as boring as it sounds. It's just a very wordy approach to writing. Wordy... and thorough.
Despite the wordiness, I have categorised this book as "action". It takes a chapter or two to really get started -- then it is non-stop action. Violent, deadly action.
It takes quite a few pages to get to understand the title of the book. It takes three times that many pages to get to the main story. Did you ever watch Some Mothers Do Have Them? A simple start leads... inevitably... to a complex and disastrous conclusion. That's the Reamde style.
The book is also very right wing, in the Heinlein -- or even Hubbard -- style. The villains are cunning but fools. The heroes use good old American (and English) know-how to win the day. Even the Canadian cougars eat villain in preference to hero.
Despite this bias, there is still time to point out some of the bad points of the American and English ways of living and working. Stephenson clearly delineates good from evil. Yet he is happy to point out that "good" is still not perfect.
This is an entertaining romp through action, violence and wrong-doing. Massive coincidences ensure that the plot keeps on twisting. And in the final chapters, right triumphs over might... Especially since right is supported by right-might, with enough weapons to fight a small war...
Oh, and there's an online game at the center of the plot. A game which is said to be a step beyond today's World of Warcraft. And the game includes many features which I had already decided should be incorporated in the next generation online game... (Though my own ideas predated WoW.)
Great action, over the top characters. And a massive computer game.
What's not to like?!
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