My Rating: ★★★★½

Author: Neal Stephenson

Narrator: Malcolm Hillgartner

Length: 38 hours and 34 minutes

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

My Review: Reamde has been on my radar for a while. Since I had read Cryptonomicon several years ago it had always been my intention to go back and read more of Stephenson’s work. So the release of this huge offering from Stephenson immediately had me interested. My excitement was partially because of the reasons I mentioned above and partially because “it was there”. I don’t know why but finishing a huge book or audiobook always gives me a since of accomplishment. The Reamde audiobook is long! Nearly 40 hours of technothriller fun.

From the beginning Reamde seemed to be everything that I was hoping for and more. All of Reamde’s characters are fully developed and very intriguing. Stephenson also manages to bring to life an entire virtual ecosystem in T’Rain. The level of detail that is used to describe the creation and maintenance of this virtual world could easily have come across as extremely dull but it is delivered in such a way that I always found myself craving more. I was particularly interested in Stephenson’s descriptions of how an MMORPG could be used to solve real life problems like airport security.

Looking back on this novel I think that Reamde is probably about 20% techno and 80% pure thriller. There is a lot of action! Reamde’s tightly interwoven plots will keep you engaged and on the edge throughout.

Audio Production: Malcolm Hillgartner was excellent. Voices for characters were immediately recognizable and Malcolm’s delivery is always on time. This was my first Malcolm Hillgartner narrated audiobook but it certainly will not be my last.

Overall: Yes this book is nearly a 40 hour investment of your time but believe me it is worth it!

Disclosure: I purchased this audiobook and downloaded it from Audible.com

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