Lose yourself in another world

This is a book that has found its medium. None of the author's descriptions, none of the information, is lost, which could so easily happen if it was turned into a film. But with the narration by Jonathan Davis, and the incidental sound effects, it's just perfect.

I bought this book when it was on special offer because I had a small refund voucher and I quite like science fiction. I could so easily have missed it! I think I have probably driven my whole family mad telling them how good it is and how it totally took over my journeys home for weeks. In fact I was so hooked I found I was still listening while I put the shopping away or started the evening meal.

It describes a world not very far in the future where people live in guarded enclaves and become citizens of franchised countries. Someone is trying to take over the minds of all the computer programmers in the world, and it's up to the main character, a brilliant programmer called Hiro Protagonist (yes, really, but I can forgive Neal Stephenson this one bit of self-consciousness) and his sidekick, YT a 15 year old female skateboard courier, to work out what's going on and save mankind.

That really doesn't do justice to Neal Stephenson's brilliant evocation of a world that could so nearly be ours, if things had developed differently. At first it's hard to work out what's going on but then the plot starts to unfold, and even the extended Sumerian history lesson in the middle falls into place. But it's not just about the lead characters. It has quite a cast list, all carefully voiced by Jonathan Davis, and all contributing to the story.

It's a terrific book, and I'm still trying to work out why.

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31 people found this helpful

Speed ×0.85

Narration is a little bit too fast for me. Makes it difficult to visualise sometimes quite complex developments or descriptions.

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1 person found this helpful

Bit of a slow story

Found it got a bit too hung up on the detail and tried too hard to explain concepts through conversations. The overral story and characters were great fun though.

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Better than sliced bread

Initially it starts like your average dystopia and then it starts to build like any good novel. True, that are some long fight scenes which could have been smaller, but it has mostly what a casual Syfy reader would want. Drama, complicated yet plausible characters, juicy tech and some ancient surprises. It’s premise rides the same bus as Julian Jaynes and the style is paramount. Good work and enjoyable..

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Samurai swords, skateboards and hackers

Proper cyberpunk, at its heart a mystery romp brimming with wit. The imagination is there on every page, whether it's talking about the various social gangs, the city-scape (burbclaves-suburbs that are independent countries), corporations like CostaNostra Pizza, the technology of skateboard couriers with grapple hooks and of course cyberspace. Oh and Samurai sword fights. It seems like a lot on paper but it's a thoroughly enjoyable world that's been built. The characters are extremely likeable, even the bad guys and the narration takes various perspectives. It was read naturally, bringing forth the dry humour and representing the characters perfectly, even down to the guard dogs.

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clean and comprehensive descriptions to emerse you

Neal conjures a graphic world with very broad reaching concepts and emerses you in it.
Some parts have you roaring with laughter. Rat things;)
Others on the edge of your proverbial seat.

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's no crash, it's great ...

An inventive future of a fragmented USA, franchiced services and ministates in which the computer world (metaverse) is as real as the 'real' one. It grabs attention once you get into the cyberpunk setting and doesn't let go. The two main characters are sympathetic though character development is not really the aim. The action is a bit hot at times and the Sumerian linguistic stuff which is central to the plot might need some replaying!. This I found a most enjoyable listen and the narrator was perfect for the action

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good book, badly formatted.

a great story and well narrated, but whoever came up with the idea of the musical interludes between chapters dropped the ball - they can be really jarring and take you right out of the moment. I found they really spoiled it for me. let's hope this isn't a major trend in audiobooks.

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muddled but still good

The world is great, fleshed out, vibrant, colourful and believably detailed. The characters are a mess, jumbled, unfocused, and simply not characters. The story is nothing, after hours of setup it just stops. All the time spent working it's mythology and creating 'tension' between characters just goes nowhere, there is no resolutions, no finality, no sense of accomplishment. Were it not for the world it's set in this would be a 2 star rating.

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The perfect book?

I think this is the perfect book for 2022. Listen and decide what you want the world to be.

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