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Squishier, Hastier, And Simpler Than Anathem

Revisado: 11-21-17

If you've read Anathem by Neal Stephenson then you will find many parallel concepts in this story. I will spare you the exact nature of the concepts but I will say that The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. is Squishier, Hastier, And Simpler Than Anathem (SHASTA). Am I saying the story is an off-brand version of typical Neal Stephenson novel? No, but that was the best acronym I could come up with on short notice. There are a lot of playful acronyms scattered throughout as well, lol. Without giving away spoilers, you may find satisfaction to references to Live Action Role Playing (LARP), sword combat (not fencing, actual swords), language history, speculative physics, and computer science. None of those items are the sole focus of the story but this list should let you know that Neal Stephenson was involved. I think he even tried to squeeze in references to monetary systems (see his Baroque Cycle series) but it takes a backseat to less heavier subjects. I don't know who the other author is but I suspect ve was responsible for spoilery subject matter that is outside of Neal's typical geeky (not nerdy!) subjects.

One spoiler I will give is that time travel appears in this story. I typically avoid time travel stories because they easily complicate plots so much that authors are unable to craft an adequately plausible story. in Anathem, time travel was strictly and clearly forbidden by the in-universe laws of physics. In DODO, it's permitted; that makes the story squishier (and less satisfying for some since time travel is impossible and so more DODO-inspired ideas you may have after reading the story will also never be more than useless fantasy).

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An interesting vision of a decentralized future

Revisado: 10-21-17

This book is a vision of a possible decentralized future. The book is about a future Earth where human society has become decentralized in money but not in power or education. Decentralization caused the collapse of the nation-state but central authorities based on cultural superiority still remain. Some cultures succeed in controlling more raw physical power by attracting or educating particular types of minds. The power to destroy or create by the manipulation of matter is controlled by central authorities which aggressively defend their position of authority in order to maintain order. As a result, educational content and methods are tuned by central authorities to churn out people who are likely to preserve the status quo; a major side effect is that this education tends to punish intelligent creatives. Loyal engineers of technologically powerful central authorities enjoy support in education and research but they avoid building any new technology that could be considered subversive. Intelligent creatives that become engineer-hackers who do not self-censor are therefore more likely to create powerful new technology had they the means but lack the material resources that central authorities could give them. This book contains a story where one central authority gives resources to one engineer-hacker with the explicit mandate to create an easily-copied education computer that teaches subversiveness as well as technological competency. The resulting story explores issues around the decentralization of power (what happens as it becomes easier and easier for individuals to cheaply and quickly make any tool or weapon) and the decentralization of education (the titular Young Lady's Illustrated Primer).

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very strange, very intriguing

Revisado: 07-21-17

The story is full of minor inconsistencies that then resolve themselves at the end. The scope of problems remind me of The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi and a Stephen Baxter novel.

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Good rough summary of Bitcoin capabilities

Revisado: 05-21-17

The book is a good rough introduction to Bitcoin without getting bogged down in details of exactly how transactions and blocks work. There is educated speculation about the possible future implications of peer-to-peer cryptocurrencies (such as Bitcoin). I would recommend this to someone who is curious but not necessarily familiar with information technology. For those familiar with Bitcoin already this book is a nice refresher and reminder about what the protocol is capable of and what it's future political implications may be.

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Strawman Argument - The Book

Revisado: 05-17-17

I was recommended this book because it contained many plausible details of logistical operations. The book is about a fictional pandemic + global cooling disaster. I think the best aspect of the book is that it contains many logistical details surrounding the disaster involving vaccine distribution, industrial agricultural, and overseas military operations.

Be warned, however, that the story is full of strawman arguments against the real-life idea of global warming and the Democrat Party.

The plot is that a global cooling disaster + bird flu pandemic kills off most people and it's up to the US Army and rural farmers to save America from tofu-eating liberals and their socialist-Democrat bitch-queen-President before their inefficient organic farming methods, racial minority favoritism, global warming obsession, and anti-military policies kill us all.

The narration is good and pleasant to listen to.

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warning headphone users: volume needs normalizing

Revisado: 03-08-17

The story is fast-paced and much more dialogue-heavy compared to the author's other books. The audio volume is troublesome for me, however. There are sections when the narrator is whispering quietly followed by much louder exclamations that hurt my ears. I recommend ripping the audio and renormalizing it so you don't have to strain yourself to understand what is being said.

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Sci-fi attempting to swallow ghost story

Revisado: 12-17-16

The story has multiple threads and many characters to follow. As a new character is introduced a whole chapter is devoted to giving a back story. This is a pattern that Hamilton continued in his Commonwealth Saga. This book is more generous with deviations to known laws of physics than the Commonwealth Saga but not by much.

Spoilers. I like the book because it attempts to reconcile the science fiction spaceship genre with the supernatural horror genre. I would have said it was I paired by ideas from Halo: Combat Evolved except this book was published in 1996 while Halo was published in 2001.

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A book with obvious Terry Pratchett holes in it.

Revisado: 07-10-16

The book feels incomplete. There are large sections of plot that are summarized over. These sections have interesting possible themes about death, the nature of life, and character-driven comparisons of philosophies that are not explored. I believe Pratchett may have intended to write these chapters himself but was unable to due to his failing health and death.

The result is a plot-driven story where Baxter again prioritizes speculations on metaphysics for speculation's sake with some late 20th century pop culture references.

To be honest, I wouldn't mind if this book had never been published.

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Very pleased.

Revisado: 06-25-16

I do not regret reading this story. A good dose of mythology mixed in with American trivia.

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Scratches my Ghost in the Shell itch

Revisado: 01-20-16

I enjoyed Ghost in the Shell with its analysis of the Human/Machine speculations. This book doesn't get too philosophical but it is an entertaining story about what a space-faring human civilization might be like.

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