Michael Finocchiaro's Reviews > Fall; or, Dodge in Hell

The final book in Crypto/Baroque universe was both underwhelming and overwhelming. I had hoped for more Shaftoe antics, and more on the descendants of the Baroque trilogy but had to be satisfied with a slightly more coherent explanation of Enoch Root and primarily the characters that were in Reamde, in particular Sophia and Corvallis and of course Dodge.

The book itself never decided whether it was a work of science fiction or fantasy. I thought it was an interesting thought experiment, but sometimes felt a bit thrown together with characters that pop up and then are never seen again. I wish there had been a better explanation between the people we knew from Meatspace and those we meet in Bitworld.

Some reviewers complained about the Ameristan section. I thought it was scarily prescient in many ways (I wonder if remote parts of Wyoming and Idaho aren't really like that, maybe even parts of Texas). I actually was disappointed that it was as short as it was and all these descriptions of Meatspace just disappear after it. Similarly, I wish we had years mentioned in the two because I couldn't figure out if we ended in 2050 or 2060 at the end of the book. Presumably, it must even be after that, but it doesn't seem to tell us.

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