Awrighty then. 1044 pages. I put a lot of miles on Reamde and got to the end of it in one long, guns-ablaze-body-count-rising rush. How quickly I accepted a world in which armed terrorists cross borders with the uncomlicated ease of flu viruses - China, Taiwan, India, Canada and the U. S of A.  - a veritable travelogue of terrorist backwood trails and uncharted plane flights. Stephenson made ignoring borders seem not only plausible, but fresh and interesting. I found myself wondering if there would be links to online resources for the DIY fan who wanted to follow in the protagonist's footsteps.

Stylistically, Stephenson reveals his passionate love of both simile and metaphor.

One of my favorites, on page 653, occurs in the introduction to the character Seamus Costello, as observed by MI-5 agent Olivia:

He was lean, like a strip of bacon that had spent too long in the pan, and a bit north of six feet tall.

Eh? Come on. That's terrific. We all know what that kind of bacon looks like. And I've never, ever heard anyone compared to a strip of bacon before. Delightful.

I did wonder, here and there, if all the words in the book were necessary ones, though. Stephenson is not afraid to lay down the words (like mayonnaise atop cheap North American sushi), so the little clever bit noted above was preambled by a much longer bit, and by the time Seamus opens his mouth to speak we have such an abundance of information about him we could pretty much sketch him out in full-colour 3D.

I'm not saying this is a bad thing, necessarily. But I found myself wondering what had happened to the editor. There was one, right? Because I got the feeling there wasn't. The same feeling I  had when I read the Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson actually. In that case the author had died and I suppose it seemed wrong to dice up the text. But Stephensen isn't dead, is he? No, he's very much alive. Larger than life, you might say. He has an enormous fan base (who would skewer me if they ever found this blogpost, but I am super well protected by my above average anonymity and lack of fame), and perhaps therein lies the problem. I suspect famous well-read authors occasionally forget that they are still in need of good editors, or perhaps editors are too frightened to insist on revisions when the author they are editing is so...godlike

Still, other than some parts of the novel reading like background research accidentally left in, I found the action sequences compelling, the exotic locales fascinating, and the plucky female leads a refreshing break from the usual testosterama.

It may just be me, but I got lost in some of the action scenes, as in: Oh, I thought she was in the cabin, but I guess she's actually under fire on the side of a hill...? The stage directions seemed a bit foggy at times (then again, I did a lot of my reading late at night), but I was happy enough to let the wave of firearms and insane jihadists sail me around it.

I certainly had no trouble with the level of violence, which one reviewer I read had trouble with. In fact I found the violence remarkably well-paced and appropriate, often used as a way to deepen character description. Very good.

Bottom line, then, because I tire way sooner than Stephensen - who must wander around bleeding words all day long, uncontrollably - I recommend it, if you have a week or so to spare. I do not believe, as the Washington Post reviewer does, that this novel is:

a brilliant refraction of the twenty-first century, from the global war on terror to social media, computer hackers to mobsters, entrepreneurs to religious fundamentalists.

But no question it's a page-turner, fun and contemporary, and wonderfully global.

Plus, I really did feel that Snow Crash and the Diamond age were ground-breaking when I read them ever so many years ago, and although there's scant evidence of that breathtaking future-telling and linking of virtual worlds to real in Reamde, there is a curious bit where Stephensen pretty much claims that the idea for Google Earth is totally his. That's fun. Little jabs and stuff; internal geek politicking - it's all there if you know where to look for it.

REAMDE