Welcome to the new blog! I’m going to kick things off with a review of the (rather good, but not for everyone) audiobook version of The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland, but first: some housekeeping.
I listen to a lot of audiobooks, but I don’t see a lot of reviews for them outside of Audible’s website, so I thought maybe it’s a niche I could fill for all of you other avid listeners out there. This will be a long-running thing on my site, I think, so let me know if you have any ideas on how I should tweak these reviews going forward (please comment below)!
The basics: D.O.D.O. is pretty good
The The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. is, at a high level, about a straight-laced military guy and amateur physicist named Tristan Lyons and a massive language nerd named Melisande Stokes. Together, they embark upon an absurd-sounding quest to restore magic to the world. Because this is Stephenson we’re talking about, you know it’s not told fairytale style–instead, it dives deep into the Many Worlds Theory (multiverse) and the Observer Effect (think Schrödinger’s Cat). Galland adds a lot of well-researched historical flare with so much detail, I’m not sure what she did and did not make up.
Put another way: the world building is both complex and nuanced–especially when Stokes and Lyons (two of the protagonists) start using the practical application of these advanced physics theories, combined with the revival of magic, to start time travelling.
How is it as an audiobook? The short answer: it’s really good, if you are able to pay fairly close attention to it. There’s a cast of five different narrators, which really does a lot to help you stay engaged in the story. When Melisande (another protagonists) is telling her story, it sounds like Melisande, which is both immersive and helpful. The narrators are all very solid, and the different voices really make it easier to keep track of the many interwoven threads of the story (more on “threads” to come).
Startup to bureaucracy
The story opens with Lyons in search of a linguistic genius to help him decipher ancient texts. He finds Stokes, and their goal becomes figuring out when magic disappeared from the world. Translating the mostly mundane texts seem to indicate that magic disappeared from the world in July of 1851, when Julius Berkowski managed to capture the first real photograph of a total solar eclipse.
This is where the whole “Observer effect” comes into play. See, magic is, by 1851, being pushed out of existence by the advance of technology because magic is reliant on the existence of the multiverse combined with people’s somewhat limited understanding of reality to function. But, photography, in particular cements reality into a single “strand” by showing all observers the same reality at the same time. This prevents a which from imposing a different reality onto the world, thus killing magic. The Eclipse was the most widely viewed photograph of all time in 1851, and the image quickly was shown in all but the furthest reaches of the world.
It killed magic because everyone knew how the reality they inhabit functioned, and they all agreed. Put another way, we collectively opened the box and found the dead cat.
With some help, Stokes and Lyons endeavor to restore magic to the world. They build an ODEC which is like a Faraday cage on steroids–it shuts out everything, essentially, and creates a tiny space (the size of a phonebooth), in which magic can still function. They fined a witch, put her in the ODEC and start sending people back in time in a money making scheme to fund D.O.D.O. (Department of Diachronic Operations). Once they succeed in selling some rare antiquities acquired via time travel and clever storage, they move on to using magic to affect change in the world by subtly manipulating the timeline (and thus, reality).
Here’s where things get . . . bureaucratic (and sometimes hilarious). See, Lyons works for a self-proclaimed “shadowy government organization,” which means the government has a clear agenda planned for D.O.D.O. Once Lyons and Stokes prove time travel can affect change, D.O.D.O. gets “properly” staffed–complete with an arrogant tool to run the whole show. This bureaucracy is the “downfall” part of the title.
The good, the bad, and the so-so of D.O.D.O.
The good: The story is fascinating–tightly woven narrative and really cool historical facts all squished together into something that really captures the imagination (and hurts your brain when you think about it too much. You’ll learn about early North American settlers, England in th 1600’s, and more.
Some of the changes are also kinda subtle, which makes them all that much cooler when you pick up on them. My favorite example of this is the fact that Lyons (and others) keep referring to “The Trapazoid,” which, at first blush, sounds like some special wing of the Pentagon. Later, you find out that, at the beginning of our tale (before people start mucking about with time and reality), the Pentagon was really the Trapazoid.
The audiobook might even be a bit better than the text version, mostly because of the excellent cast and the voice it gives the characters thanks to literal, different voices.
The only thing print has over the audioobook is probably the acronyms, which are truly epic, and it’s sometimes hard to pick up on them while listening versus reading. For example, people that go back in time? They’re called DOers (Diachronic Operatives). DOers do DEDEs (Direct Engagement for Diachronic Effect), which are things that impact the timeline of any given strand of reality (again, it’s the multiverse). DOers get their gear and intel from DORC (Diachronic Operative Resource Center). It’s pretty great, and often punny!
The bad: The characters need . . . more. They’re not exactly flat, but they could definitely use some more fleshing out. Stokes and Lyons both start out with a lot of personality, then it just doesn’t develop like I wanted it to. It feels like they didn’t want to do all the character stuff because Stephenson and Galland were too excited to tell us all about this really cool idea they have for the multiverse and how magic could fit into it.
This was a little extra rough for me because I found it hard to really get attached to any of the characters. Lyons is too government man for me, and Stokes, my easy favorite is sometimes morally ambivalent. Sometimes she has really strong feelings about right and wrong, and sticks to them aggressively. Sometimes she doesn’t. Then, right at the end, she makes a call that she is not nearly conflicted enough about, and that really bothered me, hurting what was otherwise a pretty excellent ending.
The so-so: There is a LOT of detail. It’s a lot to keep straight, especially when you’re listening to the book while driving, cleaning, or some other mundane-ish activity. The book requires some real focus, for most people, to keep straight because, in typical Stephenson style, it gets pretty damn technical. I like technical, but it’s definitely a turn-off for some, and it can cause the story to drag a bit in places.
Dragging story is bad, in general, but it’s doubly bad in an audiobook where the technical bits are fairly critical to the reader’s understanding of the story. If you don’t understand the many worlds theory (at it’s most basic, layman’s level), then youre going to have a really hard time understanding why DOers have to go back and do things over and over again to make ’em stick. And don’t get me started on diachronic shear.
If you’re into this sort of technical, and intricate world building (like I am), this will be less of an issue, but I still had to skip back 30 seconds or a few minutes way more often than I normally have to do while listening to this book. If you don’t like intricate and technical world building . . . maybe skip this book entirely or read it instead of listening to it, which might make it easier to follow for some.
The verdict
Like I said at the top: it’s good! It’s just not for everyone. The highlights:
- Intricate, and fascinating world building
- Some very cool takes on quantum physics
- It has magic even though it reads an awful lot like hard Sci-Fi
- Very good cast, which actually helps to add character to, well, the characters
- Characters aren’t fleshed out as much as I’d like
- Definitely can get technical, which will turn some people off
For my personal mix of tastes, here are the ratings (out of 5):
For Quinton’s personal tastes: 4
For a wider audience: 3.5
Audiobook performance: 4.5