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Jun 10, 2017Michael Colford rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
When a 700+ page book turns out to basically be a glorified prologue, the authors have to work awfully hard to make it worthwhile. Fortunately, Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland worked very hard and for the most part, succeeded in constructing a fun, clever, suspenseful, and fascinating sci fi/historical/time travel jaunt. D.O.D.O. stands for the Department of Diachronic Operations, and it is a little-known arm of the government who is exploring time travel to identify known-witches in the past to help restore magic to the world. It's a twisty-turny adventure with a lot of acronyms, some fun characters, (Ersezebet, a particularly arrogant but lovable witch being a stand-out), and a lost of skewering of the government, that for all it's length, moves along at a pretty rapid pace. My only complaints were the lull in the middle of the book which seemed to be an unnecessary diversion; and the somewhat anti-climactic ending after such a strong beginning. Still Stephenson is always entertaining, and Galland, known for her historical fiction, surely supplied all the intricate details of the various time periods that the characters visited. I don't know if this is the first of a series of stories (it sure seemed that way) but it was a pretty fun romp all on its own.