At its most basic level, Reamde is essentially Neal Stephenson's riff on the espionage/thriller/action yarn. However, being a Stephenson novel, such simplification doesn't really do it justice. While it may be less thematically dense and ambitious than much of his other work, (and was touted in advance press as his most "accessible" novel), it is by no means what you'd call airport-bookstore pulp. It still manages to clock in at a hefty thousand-plus pages.
The plot does not lend itself to a quick summarization, but suffice it to say it starts out with a computer virus, from which the book takes its name, designed to extract money from the players of an enormously popular MMORPG called T'Rain, similar to World of Warcraft. From there, through a series of extremely unlikely but entertaining coincidences and contrivances, things spiral out of control to encompass the Russian mob, Chinese hackers, American survivalists, and the involvement of the U.S. military, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the CIA, and Britain's M16, all entanged in a globe-trotting odyssey spanning continents. There are even some fascinating sequences set within the digital T'Rain gameworld.
Stephenson seems to have dialed back some of the wildly digressive tendencies that are a hallmark of his writing, but he still finds time to wander off the map plenty. As in his other work, plot points and character backstories are used as launching pads for detours and digressions that lend thematic weight to the story. Stephenson is still a fan of long, drawn-out set pieces involving multiple POV characters, alternating with quiet character work and, of course, the lengthy infodumps.
One is either a fan of his digressive style or not, but if you like his other books, you'll like this one as well. Sure, there are sequences that could use a little tightening up, and some of the narrative detours may be strictly unnecessary to further the story, but like all of his works, it's nothing if not immersive. Often with Stephenson, the journey is more important than the destination, and Reamde was an enjoyable trip.
