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The Borough Press
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2019
Copyright © Neal Stephenson 2019
Neal Stephenson asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
Designed by Fritz Metsch
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008168858
Ebook Edition © June 2019 ISBN: 9780008168841
Version: 2019-11-15
Praise for Fall or, Dodge in Hell:
‘It keeps you reading, it makes you think, and, by the end, it generates that sense of wonder that is the very lifeblood of science fiction’
Guardian
‘A staggering feat of imagination, intelligence and stamina … The result is a story that touches on society, technology, spirituality and even eschatology, a far-reaching attempt at a grand myth that is breathtaking in scope and ambition … a one-of-a-kind synthesis of daring and originality, unafraid to venture into wild and unmapped conceptual territory’
New York Times
‘One of the great novels of our time’
Wall Street Journal
‘Captivating … The passages set in the real world display all of Stephenson’s usual witty brilliance when it comes to technology and culture’
Washington Post
‘[Stephenson is a] speculative-fiction virtuoso … There are enough futuristic, envelope-pushing ideas here, especially related to AI and digital consciousness, to keep even nonfans and science buffs intrigued. Best-selling Stephenson is cutting-edge and his followers and all readers intrigued by shrewd speculative fiction will queue up’
Booklist Starred Review
‘Elegantly written’
SFX
‘There’s no part of this book that doesn’t chug and hum with that big-brain energy of near-future extrapolation that Stephenson’s fans love him for … Stephenson’s greatest strength as a writer has always been that he sees just a little bit further and a little bit clearer than the rest of us do’
NPR
‘An audacious epic’
Kirkus, Starred Review
‘A feat of mind-blowing adventure powered by deep existential questions’
Slate
‘Stephenson is the master of long-scale science fiction … I found myself glued to it all … And weeks after I finished reading, the ideas are burning in my brain. Some chapters have ideas that could seed full novels of their own’
CNET Book Club
‘Gripping … a fantasy-science-fiction adventure story that is closer to reality than you might think’
The Week
‘Stephenson is not merely a fantasist of the future; he is a prophet of our present, a virtual architect of the ideas that define our world … a science fiction writer who is not only determined to entertain, but to make the world a better place – even if it means inventing that future himself’
Reason
To O. L.
Contents
Praise for Fall or, Dodge in Hell
Dedication