Book Log 2018 #14: The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neil Stephenson and Nicole Galland

I was not particularly interested in reading this book - I don't think of myself as much of a fantasy reader, and the prominent mentions of magic kind of put me off - but I am very glad I overcame my prejudices and picked this up.

The premise is that magic was once common, but as technology developed it hampered the ability to perform magic, with it dying out completely at the time of the Great Exhibition in London. It's up to a team led by the book's protagonists - a low-level university linguist and a military intelligence operative - to figure out why this happened, and if there's a way to bring magic back.  As you might imagine, as the project moves along and grows it becomes harder to manage, with both expected and unexpected results.

I liked pretty much everything about the book, and think it's well worth a read.