The DODO may not be extinct just yet!

The Fall and Rise of D.O.D.O. is one hell of an audiobook.  It delivers its story through the medium of journals, documents, social media postings and conversational transcripts with a varied cast of narrators each adding their own style to their particular sections.  For the most part it barrels along delivering a deeply woven sci-fi plot garnished with a light touch of humour.  The science gets complemented by witchcraft and is another interesting take on multi-stranded time travel.  The relationship between science and magic is something I found generally interesting even if I possibly didn't 100% understand all of the concepts that were outlined in some detail.

The highlight of the humour is largely a sustained attack on American corporate culture.  If you've managed to avoid that during your life (lucky you!) then it might not mean as much but as someone who has endured it's ever-worsening tugging at my sanity this really did hit the target.

I think the main strands of the plot and the sci-fi parts are well done though plot hole pedants will likely have a field day.  The historical parts including one particular Irish character's views on England's greatest bard are also pretty funny.  It never quite takes itself too seriously. 

There are times when it dragged a little for me though.  For some of the transcripts the repetition of time stamps which works well in print were mildly irritating and some of the humour icons appeared a little more often than they were probably worth.  The ending felt fairly conclusive though it does leave things open for things to continue so the D.O.D.O may not really be extinct just yet.

In summary this is a decent ride and rather more light-hearted then I had expected which probably reflects Galland's influence on Stephenson.  Particularly given its length I was happy to spend a credit on it.  

30 people found this helpful

started good but got quite boring <br />

started out quite interesting but got quite boring with all the memos and reports that really did nothing to help the story.

8 people found this helpful

What do I do now??

I so enjoyed this book. the storyline was fantastic, with twists and turns and jumps back in time but I was still comfortably able to keep up! The performance was excellent and I enjoyed everyone of the narrator's characters. How on earth, does someone come up with this kind of storyline? I'm so impressed. It's a little bit like Jodi Taylor's St Mary's series but, in my opinion, more enjoyable because of the full cast performance. I am now wondering what on earth, I will do to fill my limited spare time. I'm not convinced I will find a book as good as this again!

6 people found this helpful

Fantastic idea - well written and acted

I have read many of Neal Stephenson's books from Snow Crash onwards and love the detail, weirdness, humour and multiple plot lines.

This story style is only a little different, without so many parallel stories running, but still with a plot (or is it timeline?), ultra weirdness and humour coming together nicely. The collaboration of Neal Stephenson with Nicole Galland has worked very well, and together they have created a wonderful story that kept my attention throughout the mega 24 hours of narrated footage.
There were a few areas where the story seemed to slow a bit, or was a little difficult to understand / get through, but hang in there - it's worth it!! Many of the last 4 hours listening are edge of seat stuff - you don't know which way things will go.

The supposed time travel theory is developed nicely and well explained. As an Audible narration rather than book I rarely had to go back and re-listen to understand.

While all the narration was excellent, I would pick out the main narrator Laurence Bouvard playing Melisant Stokes as particularly talented; her mastery of different accents of young/old/male/female/nationality is amazing.

To conclude - thoroughly recommended. I am looking forward to the sequel from Galland and Stephenson.

1 person found this helpful

Another great Neal Stephenson story

Typical Neal Stephenson story. Science, history, humour and unlike anything else you have ever read. Neal's books are the only ones I buy on the day of release.

3 people found this helpful

A strange book

Too many 'lists' of facts, dates and times. Got a bit mills and boom in places. And didn't really go anywhere. The Irish 16th century whore was very funny talking about Will Shakespeare.

3 people found this helpful

What's going on, Neal?

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Ouch. Both the story and performances are so excruciating to mine ear, it has to go back. Neal has just about lost me as a fan after this effort and that's a crying shame for me...

5 people found this helpful

Intriguing concept

Belief needs to be suspended from Chapter 1 reader. Amusing characters, plot excellent overall, but with a few, ' now what are you doing that for?' moments. Nicely narrated and the Grainne character really well written and read.

4 people found this helpful

Difficult to like when expectations were so high

Stephenson is a brilliant writer and I respect his intelligence, his last few books went straight into my top ten. But something is off here, and I'm going to summarise it into two points. 1: one of the writers must have read the 'chronicles of st Mary's' books but forgotten that fact, as some plot points are carried over wholesale, but handled here with less flair and humour and by using far more words. 2: this kind of American centred story is all very well but the non American characters are handled very badly by the story, abused, imprisoned, pushed into selling their bodies for the good of the American government.... Really uncomfortable to read something so quietly persistent in its jingoism - it must be a clever 'doubled back on itself' author idea, but it just made me really dislike the 'hero' as self serving and disrespectful of other cultures. The American protagonists are strangely vacuous, are we supposed to be engaged by their 'will they won't they' relationship? The ultimate oddness in the story is that the approach to time travel is so dangerous and blind to consequence that from the first you are just angry at the US government for allowing something to be run so stupidly that it's obviously going to go wrong. It's as if the book has been written as a warning to not terribly bright teens that time travel is surprisingly dangerous... No shinola sherlock.

2 people found this helpful

Twist all the way with Dodo

With constant twists and turns along with multiple characters read by different players keeps this unabridged version fresh and enthralling.
Well worth the listen excellent

2 people found this helpful