Maine Colonial's Reviews > Fall; or, Dodge in Hell

This is a mix of techno-thriller, Creation/Gods myth and quest fantasy. I liked the techno-thriller, especially because it features Zula Forthrast and Corvallis Kawasaki (from Reamde, though you don’t need to read that first), Zula’s daughter Sophia, and several other full-fledged and interesting characters.

As the book description says, tech billionaire Richard “Dodge” Forthrast dies suddenly, his brain is preserved and, when turned back on, he (and others in the same circumstances) inhabit an eternal afterlife that the book refers to as Bitworld.

Meanwhile, in the regular world, aka Meatspace, Dodge’s friends, family and his adversary, El, are able to observe and support Bitworld in a digital fashion. As more “souls” go to Bitworld, this becomes a big deal and the topic of increasing interest and disagreement.

The story of Bitworld is told as a kind of mythic Genesis/Paradise Lost story and then, later, an epic quest. The Bitworld story has its fascinating moments, but too much of it is told in faintly ludicrous biblical or Tolkein-ish sounding language and, yikes, the last third of the book is pretty much all quest and no Meatspace.

Let’s face it, you know that the quest is going to end in an epic showdown and you know how it’s going to end. When it comes, though, after so many pages of quest (10 hours on audiobook out of 32 hours total), the showdown is over in nothing flat. Just a brief vignette in Meatspace, another one in post-showdown Bitspace, and bam, you’re done.

I felt bad sometimes about getting irritated with the excessive detail and the switch to all-quest, because Stephenson explores some important philosophical ideas. I just wish he could have edited it and livened it up a little.