Fall

March 11, 2019
This laboriously detailed follow-up to Reamde explores where human imagination ends and artificial intelligence begins, providing some speculative concepts without any real payoff. Richard “Dodge” Forthrast, founder of the gaming company Corporation 9592, is rendered brain-dead when a routine surgery goes horribly wrong. His will stipulates that his brain be scanned and preserved by a tech company run by elusive Elmo Shepherd, in hopes of future regeneration. Decades later, Dodge’s grandniece, Sophia, designs a method for turning on Dodge’s brain, making him a lone god of sorts in a new digital world. Her invention allows people to leave Meatspace, or the terrestrial world, which is reinventing itself after the implosion of the internet, and travel to Bitworld, where Dodge and the now-dead Elmo battle for power. Though Bitworld is liberated from physical constraints and Meatspace is exploring a “post-truth” era, both simplistically replicate present-day societal power structures, showing the limits of Stephenson’s imagination. Fans of Stephenson’s passion for the minutiae of technological innovations will revel in the intricacies of his construction, but unwieldy dialogue, uneven pacing, and a narrow-minded view of the future betray the story’s promise. Agent: Liz Darhansoff, Darhansoff & Verrill.

April 1, 2019
When Richard "Dodge" Forthrast dies under anesthesia for a routine medical procedure, his story is just beginning. As the founder and chairman of a video game company, Dodge has a pretty sweet life. He has money to burn and a loving relationship with his niece, Zula, and grandniece, Sophia. So when he dies unexpectedly, there are a lot of people to mourn him, including his friend Corvallis Kawasaki, who is also the executor of his will. To make matters worse (or, to say the least, more complicated), there's something unexpected in Dodge's last wishes. It turns out that in his youth he put it in writing that he wanted his brain to be preserved until such technology existed that his consciousness could be uploaded into a computer. And much to everyone's surprise, that technology isn't so far off after all. Years later, Sophia grows up to follow in her clever grand-uncle's footsteps and figures out a way to turn on Dodge's brain. It is at this point that the novel splits into two narratives: "Meatspace," or what we would call the real world, and "Bitworld," inhabited by Dodge (now called "Egdod") and increasing numbers of downloaded minds. Stephenson (co-author: The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O, 2017; Seveneves, 2015, etc.) is known for ambitious books, and this doorstop of a novel is certainly no exception. Life in Bitworld is more reminiscent of high fantasy than science fiction as the ever evolving narrative plays with the daily reality of living in a digital space. Would you have special abilities like a mythical god? Join your aura together with other souls and live as a hive mind? Create hills and rivers from nothing? Destroy your enemies with tech-given powers that seem magical? Readers looking for a post-human thought experiment might be disappointed with the references to ancient mythology, but those ready for an endlessly inventive and absorbing story are in for an adventure they won't soon forget. An audacious epic with more than enough heart to fill its many, many pages.

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Starred review from April 1, 2019
In this supersized sequel to his best-selling technothriller Reamde (2011), speculative-fiction virtuoso Stephenson creates new challenges for his returning protagonist, computer-gaming mogul Richard Dodge Forthrast, including his literal transformation into a digital avatar. When a routine medical procedure goes awry, rendering Dodge brain-dead, a long-forgotten will drafted during his salad days abruptly takes effect, leaving his remains in the hands of wealthy and wily cryogenics entrepreneur Elmo El Shepherd. Twenty years later, his computer savvy grandniece Sophia devises a way to boot up Dodge's digitized brain in a cyberspace realm dubbed Bitworld, where he finds himself suddenly conscious again and in charge of fashioning a new virtual universe. As the decades pass and the Bitworld population of freshly deceased and uploaded souls grows, Dodge is forced to exercise tighter control?until disenchanted, power-hungry El finally arrives on the scene and turns Dodge's palace into a prison. Stephenson devotees with a taste for Tolkienesque fantasy will revel in the author's imaginative world building as the story shifts more and more into Bitworld, while those who favor his ingenious riffs on future tech may find it tedious. Still, there are enough futuristic, envelope-pushing ideas here, especially related to AI and digital consciousness, to keep even nonfans and science buffs intrigued.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Best-selling Stephenson is cutting edge and his followers and all readers intrigued by shrewd speculative fiction will queue up.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

May 1, 2019

When gaming multibillionaire Richard "Dodge" Forthrast is pronounced brain dead after a routine medical procedure goes haywire, his brain is scanned and its data structures stored in the cloud. Technological advances allow his brain to be flicked back on, but the Bitworld--a sort of eternal life sustaining humans as digital souls--is not as cool as expected. With a 250,000-copy first printing.