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Kelsey Ford: From the Stacks: J. M. Ledgard's Submergence (0 comment)
Our blog feature, "From the Stacks," features our booksellers’ favorite older books: those fortuitous used finds, underrated masterpieces, and lesser known treasures. Basically: the books that we’re the most passionate about handselling. This week, we’re featuring Kelsey F.’s pick, Submergence by J. M. Ledgard...
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  • Kelsey Ford: Five Book Friday: Year of the Rabbit (0 comment)
  • Kelsey Ford: Powell's Picks Spotlight: Grady Hendrix's 'How to Sell a Haunted House' (0 comment)

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Reamde

by Neal Stephenson
Reamde

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  • Synopses & Reviews

ISBN13: 9780061977961
ISBN10: 0061977969
Condition: Standard
DustJacket: Standard

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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

In 1972, Richard Forthrast, the black sheep of an Iowa farming clan, fled to the mountains of British Columbia to avoid the draft. A skilled hunting guide, he eventually amassed a fortune by smuggling marijuana across the border between Canada and Idaho. As the years passed, Richard went straight and returned to the States after the U.S. government granted amnesty to draft dodgers. He parlayed his wealth into an empire and developed a remote resort in which he lives. He also created T'Rain, a multibillion-dollar, massively multiplayer online role-playing game with millions of fans around the world.

But T'Rain's success has also made it a target. Hackers have struck gold by unleashing Reamde, a virus that encrypts all of a player’s electronic files and holds them for ransom. They have also unwittingly triggered a deadly war beyond the boundaries of the game’s virtual universe — and Richard is at ground zero.

Racing around the globe from the Pacific Northwest to China to the wilds of northern Idaho and points in between, Reamde is a swift-paced thriller that traverses worlds virtual and real. Filled with unexpected twists and turns in which unforgettable villains and unlikely heroes face off in a battle for survival, it is a brilliant refraction of the twenty-first century, from the global war on terror to social media, computer hackers to mobsters, entrepreneurs to religious fundamentalists. Above all, Reamde is an enthralling human story — an entertaining and epic page-turner from the extraordinary Neal Stephenson.

Review

"Stephenson has a once-in-a-generation gift: he makes complex ideas clear, and he makes them funny, heartbreaking, and thrilling." Time

Review

"Noir futurist Stephenson returns to cyberia with this fast-moving though sprawling techno-thriller...Who'll prevail? We don't know till the very end, thanks to Stephenson's knife-sharp skills as a storyteller. An intriguing yarn — most geeky, and full of staisfying mayhem." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

Review

"Stephenson's Reamde: perfectly executed, mammoth, ambitious technothriller...a triumph, all 980 pages of it." Cory Doctorow, boingboing.com

Synopsis

"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.

Synopsis

Neal Stephenson, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Anathem, returns to the terrain of his groundbreaking novels Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, and Cryptonomicon to deliver a high-intensity, high-stakes, action-packed adventure thriller in which a tech entrepreneur gets caught in the very real crossfire of his own online war game.

About the Author

Neal Stephenson is the author of Anathem; the three-volume historical epic the Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World); Cryptonomicon; The Diamond Age; Snow Crash, which was named one of Time magazine’s top one hundred all-time best English-language novels; and Zodiac. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

4.7 27

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating 4.7 (27 comments)

`
Nancy McClure , February 25, 2012 (view all comments by Nancy McClure)
This book is a very conventional thriller, and really disappointing for those of us who liked some of Stephenson's recent and highly original books. Those books had a new idea on every page, where this one has an old cliche on every page. Like an 80s cold war thriller by Alistair MacLean, "Reamde" has British Intelligence, people from the KGB, trained assassins, survivalists, millionaires in armed retreats, planes and boats and lots of guns. It does have a few plot devices that depend on terrorism, the net, and lots of kinds of data storage (but no new ways of thinking about those things). And it's a slow read, taking about twice as many pages to tell its story than are needed. "Reamde" has one good idea: exploiting gold farming in a MMPRPG. Maddeningly, the idea completely disappears after being used to launch the central hostage taking. There are NO consequences (legal, practical, moral) for the character Reamde, who blackmails thousands for real money via the online game. He simply joins all the others running around, chased by baddies. I hate to see an imaginative writer wasting his time on this crap. If you want to read a ripping good yarn with gold farming, better developed characters characters, and a much better sense of the global village right now, go read "For the Win" by Cory Doctorow.

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Johan , February 24, 2012 (view all comments by Johan)
Stephenson is back from a long run of rather boring books, Reamde is the book that we have been waiting for since Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon. The twist in the story are many and a the techno-talk doesn't feel dated and old, he really know what he talks about.

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maizelle , January 23, 2012 (view all comments by maizelle)
Fabulous, entertaining ride. Not without flaws, but I was so involved with the story, I didn't care. Bring on the next gigantic Neal Stephenson novel!

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marchand198 , January 23, 2012
This epic story spans the globe (and a massive online universe) in a fast-paced thriller. You will quickly forget about the book's length (if not its weight) and find yourself at the end much too soon. Absolutely amazing.

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LHunt , January 23, 2012
For a Cryptonomicon fan Stephenson's REAMDE is downright thrilling. All the wit, tenderness and fallibility of character that you could wish for and plenty of awesome content and context.

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sjohughes , January 21, 2012
I have often laughed at my husband as he reads his Neal Stephenson with the diagrams and soundtracks so I was dubious when he kept telling me I needed to read this one. But I trust his judgement so I gave it a shot. This book is now in my top 10. Stephenson is a true master of the complex plot. He knows exactly when to switch perspectives so you never lose track of characters, he will let you think you know where he is headed and change directions with deft skill, and his characters are frighteningly realistic. SInce finishing the book, I have caught myself wondering how Zula is doing. I was shocked and frankly disappointed to see that this book didn't make it onto any of the Powell's employee lists.

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Mark Martinez , January 19, 2012
Best brick of the year. Pretty good thriller too.

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KB Chicago , January 19, 2012 (view all comments by KB Chicago)
Once you pick it up, REAMDE is almost impossible to put down. I hate to use the cliche "non-stop, action-packed thrill ride", but you might not want to read it before bed because the adrenaline surge you'll get from really caring about whether the characters make it through will certainly keep you awake long into the night.

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Robert Hake , January 19, 2012 (view all comments by Robert Hake)
I continue, at 62, to be in awe of this author. There is no dross, filler or low point in the bit stream of the future he offers. This one, in paticular, homes in on the net and our mania with a granularity that exposes and cherishes this awesome moment in the time of social technology. Done with honor, extreme heroics and depthless demonics cultivate attention and pay off big time!

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AltoMentatis , January 07, 2012
Another wonderful book from the inventive Neal Stephenson. We attended his book-signing in Portland and really enjoyed it. This book is extremely well written and takes you on wonderful, intertwined journeys as you follow the characters through the story.

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lamassu , January 04, 2012 (view all comments by lamassu)
A great blend of cyber and traditional thriller genres. Be aware you may have to play an MMO while you read.

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Chuck Childers , January 03, 2012 (view all comments by Chuck Childers)
Fun book. I always look forward to Stephenson's books.

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FredKiesche , January 03, 2012
God, guns, games and guts all mix in an amazing blend of gaming, terrorism, action, geology (I kid you not), spies, counter-spies and much, much more. Even better than any movie called "Mission Impossible" or "James Bond"!

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dantomberlin , January 02, 2012 (view all comments by dantomberlin)
Reamde is a complex thriller about Internet Games, terrorism and family loyalty. It is a thousand page epic that takes you from Seattle to China and all over the real world and the virtual world. I couldn't put it down.

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Chris Conrad , January 02, 2012
Stephenson is, as ever, in a league all his own. Nobody else can write about technology with such mastery and still create such engrossing fiction.

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seattle shelly , January 02, 2012
Neal Stephenson gets inside your head and creates the best alternate universe weaving an adventure story using a highly addictive - much loved video game as the platform. His tale will keep you hanging on to every word, play by play in the virtual world and the real one crashing around our heroine, Zulu. You can't help but fall in love with the characters and root for their survival, the good and the bad. If you liked Snow Crash, it's like the mature, grown up version and it just gets better.

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Diplomantis , January 02, 2012 (view all comments by Diplomantis)
asdfasdf

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fou , January 02, 2012 (view all comments by fou)
Reamde is as multilayered and engaging as Stephenson's other work, less science fiction than a full-throttle romp through current technologies and society. Highly recommended.

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skeeve , January 02, 2012
Neal Stephenson is awesome!

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maizelle , January 01, 2012 (view all comments by maizelle)
Brilliant! All six zillion pages.

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Michael Emmens , January 01, 2012
Best book of the year! One of his greatest!

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pqc1 , January 01, 2012
A colossal book that I've still not finished but Stephenson proves, yet again, that he is one of the best writers out there, regardless at what genre he takes aim at.

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William Kraut , January 01, 2012
A page-turner! Great characters, a LOT of plot, action sequences that are terrific...one of the most enjoyable books of 2011.

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rgreenr , January 01, 2012
stephenson never fails to amaze.

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Arthur Fuller , January 01, 2012 (view all comments by Arthur Fuller)
Not quite up to his masterpieces (Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Trilogy), Reamde is still a wonderful work of speculative fiction. The protagonist is first a draft dodger and then a smuggler of marijuana from B.C. the the USA, and then a co-founder of a giant software company whose principle creation is a massive internet game. As always, Mr. Stephenson astonishes the reader with his erudition and encyclopaedic knowledge of just about everything. Probably this needs no recommendation to readers of Stephenson's previous books; and for those new to this author, I would suggest beginning with "SnowCrash" rather than this one. Once hooked, you'll read them all.

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Chris Radcliffe , September 09, 2011 (view all comments by Chris Radcliffe)
It's a shoot-um-up. The thing is I keep waiting for another Snow Crash or a world new to me like the Baroque Cycle but that's not in this book. What you have is a character driven spy novel that relies a little to hard on exotic locals to make the point that we are interconnected via computers. Of course the characters are very well defined but you'd expect that with over nine hundred pages to work with. But even a medium good book by a great author like Stephenson is still well worth the read.

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Chris Radcliffe , September 09, 2011 (view all comments by Chris Radcliffe)
It's a shoot-um-up. The thing is I keep waiting for another Snow Crash or a world new to me like the Baroque Cycle but that's not in this book. What you have is character driven spy novel that relies a little to hard on exotic locals to make the point that we are interconnected via computers. Of course the characters are very well defined but you'd expect that with over nine hundred pages to work with. But even a medium good book by a great author is still well worth the read.

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Product Details

ISBN:
9780061977961
Binding:
Hardcover
Publication date:
09/01/2011
Publisher:
WILLIAM MORROW & COMPANY INC
Language:
English
Pages:
1044
Height:
9 in.
Width:
6 in.
Thickness:
2.02778 in.
Grade Range:
General/trade
Copyright Year:
2011
Author:
Neal Stephenson
Subject:
Literature-A to Z
Subject:
General Fiction

Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$15.95
List Price:$35.00
Used Hardcover
Ships in 1 to 3 days
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2Burnside

This title in other editions

  • Used, Hardcover, $12.95
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