Neal Stephenson, author of the #1 New York Times
bestseller Anathem, returns to the terrain of his
groundbreaking novels Snow Crash, The Diamond
Age, and Cryptonomicon to deliver a high-intensity,
high-stakes, action-packed adventure thriller in which a tech
entrepreneur gets caught in the very real crossfire of his own
online war game.
In 1972, Richard Forthrast, the black sheep of an Iowa farming
clan, fled to the mountains of British Columbia to avoid the draft.
A skilled hunting guide, he eventually amassed a fortune by
smuggling marijuana across the border between Canada and Idaho. As
the years passed, Richard went straight and returned to the States
after the U.S. government granted amnesty to draft dodgers. He
parlayed his wealth into an empire and developed a remote resort in
which he lives. He also created T''Rain, a multibillion-dollar,
massively multiplayer online role-playing game with millions of
fans around the world.
But T''Rain''s success has also made it a target. Hackers have
struck gold by unleashing REAMDE, a virus that encrypts
all of a player''s electronic files and holds them for ransom. They
have also unwittingly triggered a deadly war beyond the boundaries
of the game''s virtual universe-and Richard is at ground zero.
Racing around the globe from the Pacific Northwest to China to
the wilds of northern Idaho and points in between, Reamde
is a swift-paced thriller that traverses worlds virtual and real.
Filled with unexpected twists and turns in which unforgettable
villains and unlikely heroes face off in a battle for survival, it
is a brilliant refraction of the twenty-first century, from the
global war on terror to social media, computer hackers to mobsters,
entrepreneurs to religious fundamentalists. Above all,
Reamde is an enthralling human story-an entertaining and
epic page-turner from the extraordinary Neal Stephenson.
