Discussion Highlights
Session 1 • July 3
Session 1
Session 2 • July 12
Session 2
Session 3 • July 20
Session 3
Session 4 • July 28
Session 4
Session 5 • August 5
Session 5
Session 6 • August 13
Session 6
Session 7 • August 21
Session 7
About This Book
“Stephenson has a once-in-a-generation gift: he makes complex ideas clear, and he makes them funny, heartbreaking, and thrilling.” —Time The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anathem, Neal Stephenson is continually rocking the literary world with his brazen and brilliant fictional creations—whether he’s reimagining the past (The Baroque Cycle), inventing the future (Snow Crash), or both (Cryptonomicon). With Reamde, this visionary author whose mind-stretching fiction has been enthusiastically compared to the work of Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo, Kurt Vonnegut, and David Foster Wallace—not to mention William Gibson and Michael Crichton—once again blazes new ground with a high-stakes thriller that will enthrall his loyal audience, science and science fiction, and espionage fiction fans equally. The breathtaking tale of a wealthy tech entrepreneur caught in the very real crossfire of his own online fantasy war game, Reamde is a new high—and a new world—for the remarkable Neal Stephenson.
What Members Thought
Reamde is a book that is stunted by its length. Its need to portray a global affair that incorporates terrorism, fraud and global politics contrasts with the premise. The events are based around events in an MMORPG - ie something that is played out in someone's bedroom. The world building of T'Rain alongside the economic model was fascinating and well crafted and thought out, but it became a tale where life was much stranger than fiction. The events of the book became even more ridiculous and preposterous as the book went along. I think our discussions enhanced the ludicrous nature of the plot, but once the bears and menstruation was introduced, I couldn't take it seriously. Hoping for a more cohesive narrative in future Stephenson books.
Our Reading Schedule
July 3
Session 1: Session 1
July 12
Session 2: Session 2
July 20
Session 3: Session 3
July 28
Session 4: Session 4
August 5
Session 5: Session 5
August 13
Session 6: Session 6
August 21
Session 7: Session 7