Hardcover, 1056 pages
English language
Published Jan. 23, 2011 by Atlantic Books, Limited.
Reamde is a technothriller novel by Neal Stephenson, published in 2011. The story, set in the present day, centers on the plight of a hostage and the ensuing efforts of family and new acquaintances, many of them associated with a fictional MMORPG, to rescue her as her various captors drag her about the globe. Topics covered range from online activities including gold farming and social networking to the criminal methods of the Russian mafia and Islamic terrorists.
Expectations: a thoughtful, magnificent mind-blowing world similar to those in "Snowcrash", "The Diamond age", "Cryptonomicon", or "Anathem".
Reality: a scenario for a Guy Ritchie criminal action movie. Russian mafia, Chinese hackers, and a manhunting puma assaulting islamic terrorists.
Reamde is still a fine piece of prose, just don't expect Platonic philosophy in this one.
