Good subject matter but plodding plot.

The premise was a great one, addressing ideas on climate change, how it could be managed and what the impact across the globe might be.
However, the plot plodded along, with some sections overly long and tedious. The final sections were better paced and more enjoyable.
The narration was adequate, with general delivery quite good but accents poor.
I'm a big fan of Neil Stephenson, but this is not one of his better books.

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Timely. Want to see this made into a TV show

Human climate change is possibly the most important issue facing us. But what if we could do something about it?
That's the premise of the book, which weaves together an incredibly diverse set of characters into a compelling narrative.
It's an important topic but it's told in a witty and engaging way. It has two of the funniest sex scenes since The First Law.

The narration on the audio book has a problem. While the narrator can deliver convincing American characters, the book is filled with Indian, Dutch, English and Scottish character. And this narrator just can't do them.
The Netherlands accent got mangled into Swedish.
The Scottish accent was worse than Christope Lambert in Highlander.
And while British South Asian accents are certainly hard, Van Dyke cockney doesn't cut it. Sorry Edoardo, I think a British narrator would have had an easier time with this material.

Despite that, I enjoyed it a great deal. It's more grounded and less whacky than a lot of other Stephenson books. The thesis is an important one. I'd can imagine this treated as an HBO style TV show.

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Fun story with some good concepts

I enjoyed the near future sci-fi setting of this story, and think the author did a pretty good job of trying to come up with believable changes and developments in the near future.

The story itself was fun, although seemed to get a bit unfocused after the first third of the book. The ending didn't really resolve that much either beyond some character plots. The characters are decent and I enjoyed following each of their stories though.

Overall a good listen, with a fun story in an interesting setting. The story felt a little bit muddled at times to me and has the feeling of being a first book in a trilogy rather than the stand-alone story that it is (at least I think it is...), but it has enough redeeming qualities that I didn't mind too much.

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Great story -shame about the accents

Up there with REAMDE, Cryptonomicon, interface and cobweb in terms of accessible thriller writing. It’s smart, we’ll paced and you get your by-the-hour moneysworth on the audio version. Just a shame about the otherwise great narrator’s awful foreign accents.

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Nailed it.

Neal has the incredible ability to setup a situation and then write the actual moment so tightly, with such an elan, that you read right past it. It is one of the great pleasures in life to have to reread a Neal Stephenson passage. You just can’t believe what you’ve read and the sharp edge of people’s lives. In this novel, he manages a good ending, that got to me. Well done sir. Well done indeed.

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1 person found this helpful

Very much on point

bang up to date with some fabulous subtle and not so subtle digs at contemporary politics, especially in the US. Typical Stephenson though with the ending feeling like it's tacked on the end of a brilliant road journey of a book. none the worse for it though

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interesting story some flaws, bad voice actor

The voice actor can't do accents at all and the story requires a lot of different accents.

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lots of fun

A fantastic Neal Stephenson story, very much in the mold of his other 'sci fi' work like cryptonomicon or reamde.

Narration was fine, struggled with one or two accents (Scottish in particular) but it was a lot to ask with so many diverse characters.

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Great story well read

Enjoyable from start to finish, I am a fan of Mr Stephenson so was expecting a good listen but this exceeded my expectations. Great characters expertly woven in to a really interesting story. Many times the story takes a turn that looks like a dead end only for it to come back together brilliantly. Highly recommended.

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Well thought out. Good characters

Yes.....non North American accents are not this narrator's forte as many have already said. But don't let that put you off. The narration is generally very good. It's a novel concept (to me) and the characters are well developed and have depth.

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