Reamde - Hardcover

Stephenson, Neal

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1848874480 ISBN 13: 9781848874480

Publisher: Atlantic Books, 2011

Synopsis

Across the globe, millions of computer screens flicker with the artfully coded world of T'Rain - an addictive internet role-playing game of fantasy and adventure. But backstreet hackers in China have just unleashed a contagious virus called Reamde, and as it rampages through the gaming world spreading from player to player - holding hard drives hostage in the process - the computer of one powerful and dangerous man is infected, causing the carefully mediated violence of the on-line world to spill over into reality. A fast-talking, internet-addicted mafia accountant is brutally silenced by his Russian employers, and Zula - a talented young T'Rain computer programmer - is abducted and bundled on to a private jet. As she is flown across the skies in the company of the terrified boyfriend she broke up with hours before, and a brilliant Hungarian hacker who may be her only hope, she finds herself sucked into a whirl of Chinese Secret Service agents and gun-toting American Survivalists; the Russian criminal underground and an al-Qaeda cell led by a charismatic Welshman; each a strand of a connected world that devastatingly converges in T'Rain. An inimitable and compelling thriller that careers from British Columbia to South-West China via Russia and the fantasy world of T'Rain, Reamde is an irresistible epic from the unique imagination of one of today's most individual writers.

About this title

Review:

"Stephenson...delivers a sprawling thriller that shows him in complete control of his story."--Publishers Weekly on REAMDE

"Expertly crafted and often gorgeously written."--Boston Globe on REAMDE

"Even at a thousand pages, Reamde is sprightly enough to jump between 9 or 10 plot threads without getting tangled up in itself, and, refreshingly, it does so without employing the annoying modern thriller trend of rat-a-tat sprays of two-page chapters."--Stranger magazine on REAMDE

"REAMDE combines meticulous observation of the stranger socioeconomic effects wrought by technology with rousing fusillades of adventure."--The Guardian on REAMDE

"REAMDE is...one big, carefully choreographed, jet-set square-dance of mayhem."--Bloomberg News

"A story that, despite its gargantuan heft, speeds along like a bullet train....The depth of the story, the attention to detail, the interlocking narratives and fine characterizations mark REAMDE as an immersive literary experience."--Pittsburgh Tribune on REAMDE

"[Stephenson] makes reading so much fun it feels like a deadly sin."--International Herald Tribune on REAMDE

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

"Stephenson somehow makes his crazy setup entirely plausible and tons of fun."--Knoxville News-Sentinel on REAMDE

"It's hard to sum up a 1,000 page tome in a short review, so if you don't feel like reading this rather long one, I'll boil it down to three words: I loved it."--Tor.com on REAMDE

From the Author:

Neal Stephenson is the author of eight novels, including the cult successes Snowcrash and Cryptonomicon. He has been shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award six times, winning with Quicksilver. Four of his last five novels have been number one New York Times bestsellers. He lives in Seattle.

About this edition

• Publisher: Atlantic Books
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1848874480
• ISBN 13: 9781848874480
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 1056