Karl Kindt's Reviews > Fall; or, Dodge in Hell

I got over 100 pages into it before throwing in the towel. It's awful. I've read all of Neal Stephenson's novels except his first (The Big U) and his worst (Anathem). I started his worst twice and got over 200 pages in and gave up both times. It's terrible. It's such a bad experience of reading, with some gems of ideas buried beneath the lack of understanding of what others will find stimulating as a novel. Anathem is so bad it's worse than this book.

Having said that, the idea behind everything would make a great scholarly nonfiction essay. This is something that this novel shared with Anathem. Great idea, horrible execution.

To give you context for my opinion, I adore The Baroque Cycle and believe it's the best fiction written in my lifetime. I love Cryptonomicon and thought Seveneves and REAMDE were entertaining and yet thought-provoking.

Anyway, read about the first 50 pages and if you don't like it, stop--it only gets worse and worse.