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

This is a spoiler-free review
Read on In The Sheets

This was one of those books that continuously called my name at the book store until one day I just blindly picked it up, took it home, and jumped in bed with it. One situation where that lead to zero regrets.

Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland have created an awesome world with a believable and historically researched, scientific explanation for how and why magic and time travel both existed and no longer exist, but still exist. It's honestly just super fun, this is the most fun I've had reading a book in a long time.

Most books of this length (750ish pages) look daunting. You read them, it starts off great, there's a big bump in the road where it feels unnecessarily long (like long just for the sake of being long). You get to the end, it's a chore, and you feel like a solid 200-300 pages could have been completely omitted without in anyway affecting the story or the book. This is not one of those cases.

The story is told from different perspectives using a variety of mediums such as old letters, translated documents, Slack messages, and power point presentations, it never feels monotonous or gets boring. Every page is a joy to read and feels relevant to the story, every character is flushed out and their development over the course of the book feels natural and exactly right. Also, Erzsebet is the best.

Not only is this a great historical / sci-fi / fantasy book, but it's also hysterical and a clear jab at startup culture and big corporations. I laughed, shook my head, nodded and rolled my eyes on every single page. As someone who has worked in startups for years, I can say that this book is a terrifyingly accurate depiction of the life of a startup and it's transition into a fucking evil corporation fully fledged company.

At the end of the day, I cannot recommend this book enough. Definitely worth picking up. Please go pick it up.