Bestseller Stephenson’s new, hi-tech gaming thriller is a world apart

It is, without a doubt, one of the smartest, fastest moving, and most consistently enjoyable novels of the year ... look no further for your holiday reading

ONE needs to take a deep breath before outlining the action of Reamde, the latest thousand-page novel from Neal Stephenson, a six-time nominee of the Arthur C Clarke Award, who can’t seem to publish without topping the New York Times’ bestseller list. Here his protagonist is Richard Forthrast, a former narcotics smuggler who went straight after realising that “video games are a more addictive drug than any chemical.” Funnelling his gains into a Fortune 500 software company, the libertarian Richard creates T’Rain, a massive multi-player online role-playing game (MMORPG) more popular and more profitable than World of Warcraft. Among his oddball employees is his adopted Eritrean niece, Zula, a resourceful young lady with a kind of “hyperspace-librarian, girl-geek thing” going on.