Fall; or, Dodge in Hell

Locations
Call Number: Adult Book / Fiction / Science Fiction / General / Stephenson, Neal, Science Fiction / Stephenson, Neal
On Shelf At: Traverwood Branch, Westgate Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Science Fiction / General / Stephenson, Neal	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Science Fiction / General / Stephenson, Neal	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Science Fiction / Stephenson, Neal	4-week checkout	Due 05-18-2024
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Science Fiction / Stephenson, Neal	4-week checkout	Due 04-30-2024
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Science Fiction / General / Stephenson, Neal	4-week checkout	Due 05-03-2024

"In his youth, Richard "Dodge" Forthrast founded Corporation 9592, a gaming company that made him a multibillionaire. Now in his middle years, Dodge appreciates his comfortable, unencumbered life, managing his myriad business interests, and spending time with his beloved niece Zula and her young daughter, Sophia. One beautiful autumn day, while he undergoes a routine medical procedure, something goes irrevocably wrong. Dodge is pronounced brain dead and put on life support, leaving his stunned family and close friends with difficult decisions. Long ago, when a much younger Dodge drew up his will, he directed that his body be given to a cryonics company now owned by enigmatic tech entrepreneur Elmo Shepherd. Legally bound to follow the directive despite their misgivings, Dodge's family has his brain scanned and its data structures uploaded and stored in the cloud, until it can eventually be revived. In the coming years, technology allows Dodge's brain to be turned back on. It is an achievement that is nothing less than the disruption of death itself. An eternal afterlife--the Bitworld--is created, in which humans continue to exist as digital souls. But this brave new immortal world is not the Utopia it might first seem... Fall, or Dodge in Hell is pure, unadulterated fun: a grand drama of analog and digital, man and machine, angels and demons, gods and followers, the finite and the eternal. In this exhilarating epic, Neal Stephenson raises profound existential questions and touches on the revolutionary breakthroughs that are transforming our future. Combining the technological, philosophical, and spiritual in one grand myth, he delivers a mind-blowing speculative literary saga for the modern age."--provided by publisher.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

There's a good novel in there submitted by ken on August 31, 2019, 7:25am Unfortunately, the book feels like 3 novels intertwined. One about the "present" of the Meatspace which I found fascinating, one about the way the Bitworld evolves from an inchoate space to a fully realized place, and the third a Quest to bring the first two together. Too much, Mr. Stephenson. I generally admire your sprawling stories, but this was just too much. I made it to the end, but for the last few hundred pages, more of a sense of obligation than interest. At least it didn't simply find.a page and end, as it felt with Seveneves.

Absorbing (and a quick read for a long book) submitted by severian on July 23, 2021, 2:35pm This novel covers a lot of territory, but its main question is about what happens when the virtual worlds we make up become more real than the ones we live in. This might seem like old territory -- after all, Stephensen wrote Snow Crash several decades prior -- but the ways in which he explores it are fresh and interesting here. A big part of the first section of the book (which I think is the best) is dedicated to the question of living in a post-truth society (virtual or not). There's a lot of wild fun to be had here.

For Stephenson fans, this book also finishes the series of stories set in the Crytponomicon world, though you don't need to read any of those other books to enjoy this one.