''Fall; or, Dodge in Hell'' is a 2019
speculative fiction
Speculative fiction is an umbrella term, umbrella genre of fiction that encompasses all the subgenres that depart from Realism (arts), realism, or strictly imitating everyday reality, instead presenting fantastical, supernatural, futuristic, or ...
novel by American author
Neal Stephenson
Neal Town Stephenson (born October 31, 1959) is an American writer known for his works of speculative fiction. His novels have been categorized as science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk, and baroque.
Stephenson's work explores mathemati ...
.
The book explores
mind-uploading to
the Cloud, from the perspective of Richard "Dodge" Forthrast, a character introduced in Stephenson's 2011 ''
Reamde
''Reamde'' is a technothriller novel by Neal Stephenson, published in 2011. The story, set in the present day, centers on the plight of a hostage and the ensuing efforts of family and new acquaintances, many of them associated with a fictional ...
''.
Plot summary
Billionaire Richard "Dodge" Forthrast is declared brain-dead after a routine medical procedure. Friends and family find his last will directs that his body be
cryonically preserved for the purpose of future brain scanning and eventual revival. His wishes are fulfilled, his frozen brain destructively scanned, and his
connectome saved in digital form.
Several years pass in which portable
augmented reality
Augmented reality (AR), also known as mixed reality (MR), is a technology that overlays real-time 3D computer graphics, 3D-rendered computer graphics onto a portion of the real world through a display, such as a handheld device or head-mounted ...
viewers become ubiquitous, social media echo chambers cause rural lawlessness, commercial
quantum computing
A quantum computer is a computer that exploits quantum mechanical phenomena. On small scales, physical matter exhibits properties of wave-particle duality, both particles and waves, and quantum computing takes advantage of this behavior using s ...
is feasible, and anonymous
distributed ledger identification becomes popular in business.
Dodge's grandniece Sophia animates Dodge's connectome as an experiment on secure
distributed computing
Distributed computing is a field of computer science that studies distributed systems, defined as computer systems whose inter-communicating components are located on different networked computers.
The components of a distributed system commu ...
, for her senior thesis at
Princeton. The connectome remembers nearly nothing, but names itself "Egdod" after Dodge's character in the video game made by his company. It builds a virtual world, with physical laws similar to what little it does "remember". Wealthy anonymous donors initially fund the support of datacenters running this "world". Brain scanning gains general popularity, after
traffic analysis shows that virtual minds are achieving an afterlife in a medieval fantasy setting. All the downloaded minds, however, suffer extreme amnesia.
Egdod is usurped by El, a terminally, and mentally, ill billionaire who is funding the computing process. El believes that Dodge not only lacked imagination when constructing the virtual world, but that he also consumes a disproportionate amount of computing power. El conquers the world, isolates Dodge (with the power of his mind, aided by augmentation by his private data centers). El subjugates the (virtual) population with a religion centered upon worship of him. Sophia (after being murdered by El) enters this virtual world, to assist Dodge in disrupting El's power. She, and several other characters, embark on an epic quest. Stephenson, in narrating this, is able to describe many aspects of this medieval fantasy world, and of the beliefs that El has instilled amongst its peoples. In the end Dodge and El have one final confrontation to determine whose vision for this virtual world prevails.
Philosophical and scientific content and influences
When attempting to explain why the virtual world created by connectomes of brain scans resembles the physical world so much, character Corvallis Kawasaki cites a claim by philosopher
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant (born Emanuel Kant; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German Philosophy, philosopher and one of the central Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works ...
that the human mind cannot make sense of anything without a space-time lattice.
Stephenson indicates ''Fall'' is indebted to
David Deutsch's 1997 book ''
The Fabric of Reality'',
as well as
John Milton's 17th century poem ''
Paradise Lost''.
''Fall'' and ''Reamde'' are set in the same fictional universe as ''Cryptonomicon'' and ''The Baroque Cycle''. ''Fall'' refers to the historical figures of Lawrence Waterhouse and Rudolf von Hacklheber from ''Cryptonomicon'', and Enoch Root makes an appearance in the story.
Reception
''Fall'' was largely well received in the press. Reviewers called it "compelling,"
"mind-blowing,",
and "the best thing
tephensonhas written in ages."
Some criticized its length and tendency to digress, while often noting that Stephenson's fans expect this from him.
Adam Roberts in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' said the "digital afterlife reminded
ima little of
C.S. Lewis's ''
Narnia'' books,"
and
Laura Miller in
Slate described the novel's depiction of its Ameristan region as "savage,
Swiftian satire."
According to
Book Marks, the book received a "positive" consensus, based on fifteen critic reviews: three "rave", six "positive", five "mixed", and one "pan". On the September/October 2019 issue of
Bookmarks, the book received (3.5 out of 5) stars, with the critical summary saying, "Ambitious, audacious, and breathtaking in scope--and perhaps not for Stephenson newbies".
''
Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...
'' was more critical, saying that the book's "
post-truth" physical realm and its digital afterlife each "simplistically replicate present-day societal power structures, showing the limits of Stephenson's imagination," and that the book features "unwieldy dialogue" and "uneven pacing." They did allow that "
ns of Stephenson's passion for the minutiae of technological innovations will revel in the intricacies of his construction."
References
{{Neal Stephenson
2019 American novels
American science fiction novels
Fiction about suspended animation
Novels by Neal Stephenson
Transhumanist books
William Morrow and Company books