If I had read this instead of listening to the audiobook I probably still wouldn't be finished. It's a good thing I have a fairly long drive to work. I love the work of Neal Stephenson but he has a tendency to write long books. That being said, there is little in this one that could have been left out without damaging the story. And it is quite a story. I will try to condense 1000+ pages into a few sentences:
Richard Forthrast, nicknamed "Dodge" for running to Canada to avoid being drafted into the Vietnam War, is now a billionaire entrepreneur who owns a resort in British Columbia and created a multi-billion dollar massively multiplayer online role-playing game called T'Rain. Hackers have targeted T'Rain with a virus called REAMDE that holds players files for ransom. Add to this a jihadist terrorist plotting against the U.S. who is being stalked by Britain's MI6, and the Russian "mafia" who have had their money stolen by the hackers and who have kidnapped Forthrast's adopted niece. The story goes from the Forthrast family farm in Iowa, to the Pacific northwest, to China, Taiwan, & The Philipines, to a somewhat confusing shoot-out on the U.S.-Canadian border where Forthrast's survivalist brother joins in the fracas. While all this is happening, strange alliances are made and broken and love blossoms among some participants. It all sounds quite confusing but it all comes together in the end, although not always happily for the characters involved. Fans of Stephenson's other novels will enjoy this one. And, if nothing else, I sure learned a lot about guns.
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