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

In popular media, time travel is often under the umbrella of science fiction. That is not so for D.O.D.O., if it weren't for witches and their magic – a center point in the fantasy genre – there would be no time travel in the world Stephenson created. It's sort of an interesting blend of scientific analysis of fantastical magic. I think that's a fairly interesting approach to the premise of time travel which has been done for well over 100 years.

That being said, the book has a number of issues. The book is initially written from the perspective of Melisande Stokes, but as D.O.D.O establishes itself the book tells the story via emails, texts and IMs, D.O.D.O PSAs, sitreps, diary entries, and more from other people. While somewhat interesting to read what these people are experiencing, this also has the unfortunate drawback of removing any sense of consistent voice that developed throughout the first third or so of the book. Additionally, it's not always clear what purpose many of these supplemental entries serves. I often found myself asking “What's happening? Why is it happening? Is this important?” Far too frequently, there was no good reason for an entry.