I debated quite a lot on how many stars to give this book. I ultimately decided that it deserves five stars because the writing is exceptionally compelling in a certain sense which I will further describe. I do, however, have ideological concerns that I shall here disclaim: I am aware that Stephenson is an advisor for companies like magic leap and blue origin, and so many of the words he put forth here I suspect are more about the future that the people that Stephenson works for desire. That is to say that I am aware that there is more than a modicum of writing in this book that is likely to be more "propaganda" than it is merely fiction. Stephenson is riding a very fine line here that dips into sorcery at is basest, and then, when viewed from a certain angle, offers perhaps the most sublime descriptions of some of the creations of God's kingdom. The problem, though, is that those views are couched in "fiction". If one could simply knock some of the cruft from the book that is polarized or else done for Mr. Stephenson's handlers, and get rid of the silly notions that the consciousness must exist in a digital cloud after death, I think this book would be perhaps the best I have ever read concerning pivotal points of what may well be highly plausible scenarios that ancients faced when their belief systems first came into focus.

Indeed, Stephenson DOES get rid of these notions at a certain point, however it is but one moment that hints at the possibility of something greater that needs none of that. Perhaps this is the part of Stephenson that knows that quite a bit of what passes for futurology is so much sleight of hand.

There are elements to this book that are probably blasphemous--particularly where angels are involved. As Victoria's Secret has shown, angels are a difficult thing to try to bend and use to a specific mortal purpose without some repercussion.

However, despite all these issues, I have to push aside my own personal preferences and judge the work on the basis of its creativity. This book is worth reading. It is worth reading if you are "into technology" or if you are a "serious student of religion" or ideally, both. The digital afterlife here constructed sounds a lot like the underworld of Greek myth, and I suspect this is probably the intention. Be forewarned though that its intermingling of human elements causes some clashes. It is rather like Stephenson was trying to write a sort of Bible and also Science Fiction and mixed heavy elements of both along with Greek paganism in heavy measures. Indeed, he mentions he drew heavily from Ugaritic sources. If it were possible to toss out any agenda from the people Stephenson is working for, the work would probably stand very well on its own as a sort of "alternative universe" version of reality. That would neatly solve some of the more spiritual aspects that are otherwise tossed into the realm of fiction, when clearly, the descriptions provided hint at something else.

Having said all the above, I have read Stephenson's other work, and one thing I do appreciate that he does is that he puts the necessary research into what he writes such that where he does mingle the bits that are ancient stories or tales, they make sense.

I will not be re-reading this work again personally, but I'm glad I made time in my reading schedule to check on someone I've kept up with for some time now. Who knows, maybe Stephenson's next book will go ahead and make that "leap" into being a sort of workable metaphysics without the whole "this is not really real, but it kinda is, but it isn't" stuff going on. ( )

The first 300 pages were fantastic. Then the story delved further into bitworld and became less interesting to me. Many reviews said that the last part of the book was almost entirely a fantasy novel within bitworld, so I gave up at around page 500 and will not be finishing the book.

This is disappointing, because the first 3rd was so very good. ( )

While no one writes like Stephenson, which is usually good, I felt like this book had a fairly weak middle third. In some sense, it could be read as 1/3 science fiction (great!), 1/3 speculative fiction/VR/simulated worlds (not so great), and 1/3 fantasy (back to great!). While they were all well-connected, and the flow's not as simple as I write, I just didn't feel that the start and growth of the virtual world part (including some of the matching real world parts) worked very well, and seemed to fall back to much on biblical ideas. ( )

this follows Stephenson's Reamde novel in the sense that it is about the character Dodge in later life, although it's more like a standalone work than a sequel. Dodge forgets the rule not to eat before a clinical procedure, and the world changes dramatically as a result. this involves making a gameworld and stocking an afterlife, with some musing on religion as a side concern. the time shifts from the presentday to the future to an altered primitive past - but time is itself a character. there's also a lot of genre shifting, with quests and other fantasy elements alongside a world we can still recognize. the text itself moves from the author's signature style of vivid characters and crisp prose in Stephensonian chaotic storylines, which usually works out well if you just trot along after all the author's discursions. but in this case, i had some trouble with the prose and perhaps also with the bent of the subplot that resembled a Bunyanesque Pilgrim's Progress, which i would have liked to edit down quite a bit, though the conclusion of the whole affair was nicely twisty. nevertheless, the whole book is as always full of provocative ideas and (im)possible directions about where society might head not too far into the future, and i still heartily recommend it. ( )

Loved it. It shifts gears in the middle (that’s not a spoiler), and it took me a while to click back in with the story. It was well worth it. You never know where Stephenson will take you! ( )