REAMDE by Neal Stephenson

I mentioned this before, but REAMDE is reminiscent of Stephenson’s Zodiac, which was the first of his novels I read.  I enjoyed Zodiac, but I didn’t go out of my way to find other Stephenson works at the time.  I judged it a good eco-thriller, which are not typically my fare.

REAMDE is a good thriller.  Stephenson writes extremely well, and has some good characters and, well, thrilling moments.  But it’s not what I love Stephenson for.

So, it’s a very good book, but it’s just an okay Stephenson book.

The action spans from the terrain of an online Worlds of Warcraft style game to China to the wilds of the Canadian/US border.  The storyline is at once outlandish and plausible, a testament to Stephenson’s adept plotting.

Hopefully he’s gotten this one out of his system, though, and we can get back to the really good stuff.