The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.: A Novel

About this book

From bestselling author Neal Stephenson and critically acclaimed novelist Nicole Galland comes a captivating and complex near-future thriller combining history science magic mystery intrigue and adventure that questions the very foundations of the modern world. When Melisande Stokes an expert in linguistics and languages meets military intelligence operator Tristan Lyons in a hallway at Harvard University it is the beginning of a chain of events that will alter their lives and human history itself. The young man from a shadowy government entity approaches Mel a low-level faculty member with an incredible offer. Tristan needs Mel to translate some very old documents which if authentic are earth-shattering. They prove that magic actually existed and was practiced for centuries. But the arrival of the scientific revolution weakened its power and endangered its practitioners. Magic stopped working altogether in 1851 at the time of the Great Exhibition at Londons Crystal Palace-the worlds fair celebrating the rise of industrial technology and commerce. Something about the modern world "jams" the "frequencies" used by magic and its up to Tristan to find out why. And so the Department of Diachronic Operations-D.O.D.O. -gets cracking on its real mission: to develop a device that can bring magic back and send Diachronic Operatives back in time to keep it alive . . . and meddle with a little history at the same time. But while Tristan and his expanding operation master the science and build the technology they overlook the mercurial-and treacherous-nature of the human heart. Written with the genius complexity and innovation that characterize all of Neal Stephensons work and steeped with the down-to-earth warmth and humor of Nicole Gallands storytelling style this exciting and vividly realized work of science fiction will make you believe in the impossible and take you to places-and times-beyond imagining.