WHAT IF MAGIC IS SIMPLY A FORGOTTEN FORM OF TECHNOLOGY?
What if magic is simply a forgotten form of technology?
Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland who last collaborated on 2010’s “The Mongoliad” reunite on “The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O,” a science fiction thriller that involves magic, history, witches and modern terrors.
“The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O” features Dr. Melisande Stokes (aka “Mel”), a classical linguistics professor at Harvard University before she is recruited by a dashingly handsome, yet socially tone deaf military major named Tristan Lyons to work for an upstart government program known simply as D.O.D.O. The acronym stands for the Department of Diachronic Operations. The primary purpose of the operation is to bring back the art of magic, which died out in 1851 due to technological advances. This isn’t the kind of manufactured magic you’d get traipsing around Disney World or seeing some David Blaine street illusion, but actual sorcery done by witches — specifically time travel.
Slowly but surely, Mel and Tristan gather a rag-tag team of outcasts, (one being an actual witch) to assemble a versatile squad capable of executing such an endeavor. But instead of a George Carlin-operated phone booth or a 1981 DeLorean as their means of transit through time, they have a big metal box known as an ODEC where a witch can literally work her magic. From there, our heroes travel through time to complete missions that help the D.O.D.O. program stay afloat and to keep magic in the appropriate hands. However, government bigwigs force their way into the mix and it quickly becomes evident that witchcraft and politics don’t mix well. Before long, the strands of time begin to unravel in a frightening fashion.
At first, I found the chemistry between Mel and Tristan to be abrasive as they’re both too intelligent and too smarmy for their own good, but once they settle down, they become much more endearing. The witches, however, are perhaps the most tangible of the characters as they are carefully fleshed out to avoid falling into any kind greenskinned MGM stereotypes. Erzebet, the main witch that D.O.D.O. deals with, is the perfect example of that; her personality is enjoyably unpredictable and she is undoubtedly the linchpinof the novel.
The structure of the nearly 800 pages of “The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.” can be a confusing, but overall a fun and rewarding read. Mr. Stephenson and Ms. Galland exchange traditional chapters in favor of character journal entries and archived D.O.D.O documents like memos, online exchanges, transcripts, employee dossiers and incident reports. This was initially concerning because I thought that character and plot development would suffer from such a quirky gimmick, but the way each document cleverly plays off the previous one only enhances the book’s drama and bitingly dark humor (a glossary of acronyms and list of characters also helps to unmuddy the waters).
However, what Mr. Stephenson and Ms. Galland do best in “The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O” is create their own expansive universe that a reader can dig into, especially if you’re a fan of “Star Wars” or “Game of Thrones.” D.O.D.O.’s agents (aka: “DOers”) all have their own class categories that cater to a role-playing demographic, and the ending of the book leaves the door wide open for this universe to get even bigger.
“The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O” sure contains a lot of wild elements, but Mr. Stephenson and Ms. Galland add the appropriate ingredients to make this eccentric cauldron boil without any toil.