Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.
    Unavailable
    The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.
    Unavailable
    The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.
    Audiobook24 hours

    The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.

    Written by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland

    Narrated by Laurence Bouvard, Shelley Atkinson, Laural Merlington and

    3.5/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this audiobook

    You think you know how the world works? Think again.

    21st Century America

    Magic has faded from the minds of mankind, until an encounter between Melisande Stokes, linguistics expert at Harvard, and Tristan Lyons, shadowy agent of government, leads to the uncovering of a distant past.

    After translating a series of ancient texts, Melisande and Tristan discover the connection between science, magic and time travel and so the Department of Diachronic Operations – D.O.D.O. – is hastily brought into existence. Its mission: to develop a device that will send their agents back to the past, where they can stop magic from disappearing and alter the course of history.

    But when you interfere with the past, there’s no telling what you might find in your future…

    Written with genius and complexity, this vividly realised novel will make you believe the impossible, and question the very foundations of the modern world.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJun 15, 2017
    ISBN9780008132606
    Unavailable
    The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.
    Author

    Neal Stephenson

    Neal Stephenson is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the novels Termination Shock, Fall; or, Dodge in Hell, The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. (with Nicole Galland), Seveneves, Reamde, Anathem, The System of the World, The Confusion, Quicksilver, Cryptonomicon, The Diamond Age, Snow Crash, Zodiac, and the groundbreaking nonfiction work In the Beginning . . .Was the Command Line. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

    More audiobooks from Neal Stephenson

    Related to The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.

    Related audiobooks

    Science Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Convict

      Jul 10, 2020

      The Convict
      5 min read

    • Article

      Shame Is Ever-Present When You’re Sitting in a Cell

      Oct 23, 2020

      Between a strained relationship with my family and the death of a good friend, I’ve struggled to feel like I’m worth something.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Retiring Gossip Girl

      Jul 28, 2021

      In the first few minutes of GB News, Mr Andrew Neil broadcast something as if it was intimately tailored to his intended audience, all of whose inside-leg measurements he knew already. His channel would not be peddling ‘gossip from inside the Westmin

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Homeless Angel

      Oct 18, 2018

      "Just as craving crystallizes into anguish, so does understanding flower into letting go." -- Stephen Batchelor, "Buddhism without Beliefs" I walk into the new CVS pharmacy in my neighborhood to buy a birthday card and the first thing that happens is

      3 min read

    • Article

      Nick Laird

      Dec 15, 2017

      I was trying to write like an adult.I had children.I was at the end of something. As I waited at my table by the window for the coffee,I saw that the sirocco had depositeda scrim of dust on the sill overnight,and it was the dark red of powdered blood

      3 min read

    • Article

      Soft Blues

      Feb 15, 2021

      Soft Blues
      15 min read

    • Article

      Collins Ferry Landing

      Jul 1, 2020

      for my father Only rivers bottom out like this.Only rivers bottom out with this kind of conviction.Not humans, or, at least, not humans asindisputably human as you were,trapped in consciousness’s surplus, exilic,animalized absurdity, writhing in its

      5 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Jul 1, 2018

      Three Poems
      4 min read

    • Article

      Cruel Means, Bitter Ends

      Nov 10, 2021

      “In order for this speech to mean anything to me, I’ll need to dispense with the usual demagoguery and, instead, make an attempt at honesty. With this in mind, there is one thing I have to make clear. I’m not in this race to serve your interests, but

      12 min read

    • Article

      The Straw Hat

      Aug 2, 2018

      The Straw Hat
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Final Truth

      Jan 21, 2020

      The Final Truth
      5 min read

    • Article

      It Takes Blood And Guts

      Nov 21, 2020

      I’m sitting on Skin’s terrace in Ibiza, soaking up the late summer sunshine via the magic of the internet. It’s the closest I’ve come to travel since the start of the panny danny and looking out my window at the dark Edinburgh sky, I’ll take all the

      6 min read

    • Article

      SHORT STORY by MARGARET ATWOOD

      Mar 22, 2023

      SHORT STORY by MARGARET ATWOOD
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Mind Reader

      Sep 10, 2022

      It happened so long ago you’d think I’d just forget it. But I haven’t, I can’t; it’s nested in my mind, coiled and twisted into my memory like a serpent I can’t get rid of. I remember it at odd moments: when I’m eating breakfast or riding the train t

      23 min read

    • Article

      G’day – And Goodbye

      Aug 25, 2021

      G’day – And Goodbye
      4 min read

    • Article

      Table Talk

      Mar 1, 2024

      Table Talk
      9 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.

    3.5/5

    556 ratings49 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 2/5
      must of been paid by the word! needs editing desperately

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Stephenson is just awesome, as usual. Mixing up historical events and fiction, science and fantasy, and doing so in such an amusing manner that you just can't hide a smirk while listening - that's something he's really great at.
    • 5/5
      I’m not usually a fan of either magic or time travel but this story sucked me right in. Brilliant.’
    • 4/5
      After reading several reviews of this book I’m convinced I can make a useful contribution. Even allowing for ‘suspension of disbelief’, in all my many years of reading sci-fi/fantasy I can’t remember ever coming across time traveling as being associated with magic—longevity, yes—but not time travel. And the rules are obviously tinkered to aid the story line: you can’t send yourself in either direction, so someone else has to do it for you….and there are more such ad hoc rules to the game to further the plot. The book contains 5 parts:Part 1. Magic used to be real and disappeared over time; the question is how/why? This Part solves that riddle by blaming science, in general, and photography in particular. The authors’ logic almost made sense—until they absolutely blamed photography. Of all the causes for the disappearance of magic, what has taking pictures got to do with anything? Is it somehow connected to the fear of having your soul captured on paper? Anyway, this Part is mediocre, but not bad.Part 2. Now they have to find a way to construct an environment that will block out the effects of science and allow magic to function again, inside this restricted zone. Now we’re talking heavy science: quantum theory, super magnets, near absolute zero temperatures, etc. And they do it…all by themselves. And this is where the authors assume that we enjoy watching really powerful bureaucrats strut their stuff and demonstrate stupidity in action. I’ve been in the military and I accept the premise that there are stupid people there—but not in charge! When they’re killed off in this story, not only I, but all other characters seem to accept the situation with a savoir faire that verges on insouciance. I also was not entertained by the authors’ assumption that bureaucrats love catchy acronyms. There are plenty of words available for nicknaming the people traveling from one source time to another without making up confusingly un-cute acronyms. I tried ignoring them, but found that the authors were determined to force the issue on almost “every” page.Meanwhile, the only exploit that they conceive of attempting for proof of concept is to go back in time, steal a book and bury it to be found several hundred years later in someone’s backyard in order to make enough money—from the sale of a literary artifact—to self-finance their projects.In sum, this Part reads like the old TV series, “Get Smart”, “McHale’s Navy” and “Hogan’s Heroes”, with slapstick, smart aleck, pseudo erudite politicians and generals dictating who does what, when and how in order to maintain some statutory concept of government/military(?) “discipline”. I almost gave up the book here. And, with all this cumbersome (and silly) give-and-take as they try to create an organization to employ magic, all they can think and do with magic centers around time travel.Part 3. We continue with the construction, and improvement, of the “magic” environment—scientifically constructed to be free of the influences of science—we see the “time police” being formed. This perked my interest some. Not so much dwelling on what these stereotypes do here, so much as realizing that, in all the really good sci-fi “time patrol” stories, the construction/formation of the time police is never described [check out Andre Norton’s various episodics, like the “Russ Murdock/Time Traders” series; or Fritz Leiber's truly outstanding "Change War" saga ].I can see this book being made into a Netflix sit-com.Part 4. We see the organization falling into place; and we watch the anti-hero villains growing their plans, and manipulating their dupes, in preparation for a) making their own fortunes; b) stopping science in its track to maintain magic “in the air”.We might note here, that references are scattered throughout the book concerning other countries experimenting with this magical time travelling…but we never actually encounter them. Which makes me wonder if they really exist—or if the authors just conveniently ignored them in order to set up the current list of bad guys, who will surely return in further books.Part 5. Here we see all the action come to fruition: all the bad guys masterfully execute their plans and appear to succeed enough to apparently destroy D.O.D.O. ----but don’t. And yet, they’re not caught. In fact, the only people left standing are the bad guys, and the small coterie of the original D.O.D.O. personnel who vow to stop the bad guys “whenever” they appear, and without the help of the government or its funds.In summation, there are some exciting scenes that are well worth the reading—but only a few. My guess is that, if you’re under 20 you’ll really like this book. But if you’re over 50, you will easily find it unsatisfying. It’s all too silly for me.
    • 4/5
      Excellent book! I love the combination of sci-fi and magic...time travel and witches! A well-written page turner.
    • 2/5
      I absolutely love it when magic becomes science and this book did it so well. The second half of the book however did not do it for me, it felt like it was dragging on a bit, as if it was pre-emptively being written for a TV series adaptation. I think owuld enjoy the second half of the book much more as a TV series.
    • 4/5
      Listened to this one on audio with a whole bunch of narrators. Not quite a full-cast performance, but a bunch of different people reading different parts. This was a fun read. Hard science fiction with Stephenson's obsession with life in ancient times. In this one, a mysterious black ops government type hires a linguist to translate many different documents throughout time to uncover what happened to magic in the world and why it disappeared in the mid-1800s. Then thru the "magic" of scifi macguffins, they uncover time-travel with the use of quantum mechanics and the one remaining true witch left in the world. They set about going back in time to bring magic back. It sounds contrived and hokey, and sure it is, but I felt it worked really well and the authors came up with some interesting ideas about the how and why and where of time travel might work. It's a fun read, where they switch back in forth between narrators and different writing styles/methods, from found journals, to chat logs, to interviews. I suspect that Galland did most of the writing, as she has apparently written a sequel (Master of the Revels: A Return to Neal Stephenson's D.O.D.O) that I'll have to look out for.
    • 3/5
      While it certainly had some gems, this was by far Neal's worst. Seems like he used the theme to ramble on about all his historical grievances, like Kit Marlowe
    • 3/5
      I couldn't actually get through it
    • 4/5
      I love time travel, and books about quirky time time travel organizations, so this seemed right up my alley. There's a neat concept about how it all works, and the gradual reveal of what's going on is exciting. In the late middle it bogs down a bit, and I found some of the parts with Blevins pretty harrowing to read (because he's just a skin-crawlingly awful, manipulative dude). But then the plot picks up again, and it's got a nice satisfying ending. The main romance reminds me a bit of [[[The Chronicles of St. Mary's]]], actually. There's a bit of weird vintage sexism here and there, but for the most part the protagonists are a great bunch of people and I always want them to succeed.
    • 4/5
      Absolutely delightful fun.
    • 4/5
      Fun story. Witchcraft, time travel, intrigue, all mixed with some classic military thinking snafus.

      Time travel and all of its inconsistencies is not my favorite form of speculative fiction, but this is well done. It doesn't completely make 'sense', but the logic at least hangs together on its own terms.

      Neal Stephenson's books are always full of interesting ideas, and this one is no exception.
    • 3/5
      This was fun. If you liked Connie Willis' Oxford Time Travel books, you will probably enjoy this. And vice versa.
    • 4/5
      Another amazing concept; another great story. Not his best, but Neal Stephenson always gives a good read. The performance of the audio book was also well done.
    • 2/5
      This latest effort from Neal Stephenson suffers from his usual issues. The story ends just as I start seeing the tale I really want. You don't go into Stephenson works hoping for good character development (and you won't find it here). Not to mention the sex feels tacked-on and unnecessary...
    • 4/5
      Hilarious caper. "The Lay of Walmart" is excellent. But eventually the book somehow becomes overextended and ends up a bit trivial. On the way, there is some good satire, and some good history.
    • 4/5
      Somehow they managed to avoid the elephant in the room. Yes, I'm talking about Jesus. They handle the Hitler question (sort of), but somehow fail to mention going back in time to do research on Jesus. That would probably be my first trip, assuming that you could do the research to find him. He seemed to be saying that they got around the butterfly effect with an in-depth analysis of strands, but I don't buy it. People were killed. Major events were changed. In most of these time-travel stories there are major consequences for these actions. I preferred the first part of the book before it all became government controlled and full of acronyms. Still, I thought it was well thought out for the most part. A bit of a cop out at the end as it set itself up for a sequel.
    • 3/5
      Neal Stephenson is a favorite author but this book is not a favorite. I liked the idea of the story which was to take science fiction and fantasy and squeeze them together in this book about time travel and how the US government attempts to use this to slowly change history through slight changes in the past. It is a good lesson on why we probably should never have time travel. It certainly shows how bureaucracy and politics mess up things. What I did not like; the book was long and employed several narrative techniques such as diaries, text messages, phone calls, beside the usual narration. I was okay with the narration to some extent but it was the parts that could make this book drag on and on. I also totally saw no reason for the frequent use of swear words, especially the one that everyone seems to think is so fun to say. They were entirely unnecessary in the telling of the story.
    • 3/5
      I'm a sucker for time-travel novels. I like the attempt in this book to pseudo-science an explanation for both magic and time-travel. Honestly, like every Stephenson novel that I've read, it is too long. It is fine but feels like it could have been tightened up some. Still worth the read.
    • 4/5
      Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland combine to author The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O, a science fiction/fantasy novel. The basic premise (spoiler, but you find it out in the first few pages) is that through history, witchcraft has waned as science advanced. A government research agency finds a way to restore power to witches, and is soon using them to alter history. There’s an underlying romance between two of the characters.The story is told as a series of journal entries, memos, letters, meeting minutes, etc. This style works for the science fiction part, but isn’t very effective at conveying romance, and the romance is such a minor part of things that it almost seems like an afterthought – hey, let’s put some love interesting in here just in case somebody wants to buy the movie rights. The descriptions of bureaucracy ring very true, though – having worked for various bureaucratic organizations I recognized many of the characters. The villains, such as they are, are old white men who are so convinced of their rightness that they don’t recognize disaster until it’s too late.Funny in most spots, tragic in a few. A quick read. Like almost all Neal Stephenson novels, it has an abundance of interesting ideas and an unsatisfying ending. I don’t know anything about the second author (Galland) but I didn’t see anything that was obviously her contribution.
    • 4/5
      I've been pretty down on Stephenson since Cryptonomicon as characters, story and plausibility seem to radically diminish in importance next to his ideas . . . which aren't really *that* good.I had high hopes of his working beside a single collaborator, especially one who shown a keen interest in things like character development and motivation (see I, Iago). And for the most part I got what I'd hoped for. The tone is different than old Stephenson, and the nature of a lot of the whimsical bits is different, but we get a story and characters that exist as something other than a vehicle for concept.There's also, I think, an element of hommage/parody of Kage Baker's company series here. Which is worth half a star from me.Not great, by any means, but eminently readable even by folks who aren't absolutely convinced of the need to hear what Neal Stephenson thinks about whatever he's thinking about at the moment, even at the cost of pointless verbosity, characters who are mere puppets and awful, tone-deaf mixtures of contemporary slang and period English. (All of which are mostly absent here. Thank you, Nicole)
    • 4/5
      Fun read. Stephenson's books are best consumed as audio, I'm finding. Lessens the frustration of his digressions.
    • 5/5
      Really enjoyed it. A tag team by Stephenson and Nicole Galland. Witches and magic and time travel.....
    • 3/5
      Rambly and fun time travel romp set in Cambridge. Some of the storytelling formats didn't work well in audiobook format (transcripts of conversations were the most painful) - Stephenson's ninja habit was fulfilled by Vikings this time.
    • 3/5
      Honestly by the end I didn't care. This has taken me ages to finish and if it wasn't for a flu and determination I'd have a sneaking suspicion this would never have been finished.I've seen a lot of reviews where people either love it or dislike it, very little middle ground on this one (so if you're reading it and you're meh about it, just move on)Basic plot is a medieval linguist recruited into a secret government organisation who work with witches to do time travel and when they annoy the wrong person it all goes very pear shaped.It's clever but I just didn't feel a lot of joy in reading it, more I wanted it to be done.
    • 3/5
      I'm a fan of Neal Stephenson, and got this book without really checking it out. I found two concerning facts - it is only co-written by Stephenson, and and it is about magic and time travel.I have now finished the book, and am glad I persisted in spite of my initial reservations. I don't know how the two authors split the creative process, but the end result is a page turner. There is a good narrative thread, enough suspense, some good humour, and an array of characters - what's not to like?And my second qualm - the witches and magic? Well, quantum physic is mind-boggling and time travel is a fantasy, so weaving witches and magic into the plot isn't such an imposition.A good fun read.
    • 3/5
      One of the weakest Stephensons. The author is known for an overabundance of ideas and plot threads that get crammed into a story no matter what, but here he really overdid it in a way that it created more plotholes than anything. Apart from that, the characters were habitually weak. Far too many quirks and clichès, far too little real personalities - and the many stylistic forms, from diary entries to chat logs didn't help either.I really liked Tristan and Melisandre, and it was a pity that their development fell so flat in the end, getting lost between politics, abductions, conspiracies and master thefts.
    • 4/5
      Beginning as a diary, this tome uses a variety of voices via letters, wikis, diaries, reports, etc. to weave a story of time travel . Magic and time travel are made obsolete by scientific technology, most specifically photography, but Tristan believes he can create a space that will allow both to return in a limited way. Aided by a discredited scientist, Dr. Oda, and a historical linguist, Melisande, the three begin to experiment with the concepts and their potential for national security.
    • 3/5
      A governmental view on time travel and magic centered on a group of people attempting to slowly change the past to benefit the future. It starts off great. It explores time travel and different strands of time while also making a satisfactory way of explaining magic. It is told in a memoir/journal/messages format largely from one character, but also has other, shorter POVs. It is not hard science fiction, as the explanations are light and quick. The book is too long. It became very boring in the middle as other plots were brought into view, only to be dropped and seemingly meaningless. The ending gets much better as the plot finally gets interesting, but then it just stops. The book has a good amount of humor that still made it enjoyable throughout though. The audiobook has a full cast of narrators which likely made the book a lot better.
    • 2/5
      D.O.D.O. is a mess. There is way, way too much in this book, and none of it is explored in depth. The novel suffers from a superficial exploration of . . . well, everything. The movement of information, alternative narratives, agency, politics, banking, and more: they all play a part, but there's no overall sense of how they play against each other to shape the narrative. This is no modern-day epistolatory pastiche; it's a just a mess.As I said, the narrative lacks basic coherence. For lack of a better way of putting it, there's nothing to sink your teeth into. For those familiar with Stephenson's writing, this will come as a surprise.* I certainly didn't expect an ending with a clear-cut resolution and moral of the story, but I also didn't expect complete frustration with careless juggling of concepts, any of which alone, explored more throughly, occupy an entire series of novels. There's a casual misogyny running through the novel. All of the characters are one-dimensional, and many are stereotypes, but the way female characters are portrayed and discussed stands out as particularly problematic. Just as the novel yields no substantive conclusions about any of the concepts discussed, so I also cannot make a substantive comment about this misogyny. It just is, and I don't know why.Be prepared for slogging through anything and everything related to bloated bureaucracy. Certainly, it does illustrate one of the novel's major themes. However, it's so heavy-handed that it becomes a (fictitious) example of that which it seeks to lampoon.The parts of the novel that focused on time travel missions (DEDEs, in the parlance of the book) were my favorite parts by far. I skimmed some of the middle, frustrated with narrative repetition. I knew I wouldn't be reading a book with a traditional narrative and a tidy ending, and that's not even something I seek out in books. There's a difference in postmodern pastiche (or whatever this is supposed to be) and a book that is just poorly written. It appears to end with a set-up for a sequel: send in the editors before that goes to press!*Note: I have only read one of Galland's novels and cannot comment on how this work relates to her body of writing.