Master of the Revels audiobook

I loved this. But three caveats for would be readers:1) You have to have read the previous book, The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. or this one will make little sense.2) It’s a bit slow to get started. So patience is necessary.3) It might not be everyone’s cup of tea. But ifyou enjoy fantasy novels about time travel, firmlygrounded in different historical eras, you willprobably find this delightful. Especially if you’re a Shakespeare buff, as Shakespeare’s England is the centerpiece of the tale.In the last book the key personnel of D.O.D.O.,the Department of Diachronic Operations,a government agency concerned with time travel,all abruptly left the agency. (Were some fired? I don’t remember).These key people are Frank Oda, the elderly genius physicist who has devised most of the equipment for time travel and data recording (especially the ODEC, a small enclosed chamber one enters to be sent to another time); his wife, stoic New Englander Rebecca East-Oda; Tristan Lyons, ex-military; Melisande Stokes, an historian and linguist; Mortimer Shore, a techie jack of all trades; Erzsebet, a haughty, petulant, and somewhat narcissistic Hungarian witch, who is irritating but very talented at sending people to other times and places and at figuring out probabilities of success and number of attempts needed for each DEDE (Direct Action for Diachronic Effect), which are performed by DOers (Diachronic Operatives).These talented people all defected from D.O.D.O. because of the ascension of Grainne, a very evil Irish witch whose goal is to eliminate all technology from the world. This is because in 1851, magic left the world because of the rise of technology. That is,after 1851, witches can no longer perform magic outside of an ODEC (which makes magic possible again). (Certain exceptionally powerful witches like Grainne and Erszebet do seem able to do some magic outside of an ODEC). Grainne is a very powerful, nasty, and unscrupulous witch who will stop at nothing to accomplish her goals. She has murdered numerous people. She has the odious Dr. Blevins, who runs D.O.D.O., under her thumb, using flirtation to manipulate him.The defectors from D.O.D.O., who totally oppose Grainne and her goals, have formed a semi-secret “Rogue D.O.D.O.”, operating out of the Odas’ house.They no longer have access to the expensive equipment and data at D.O.D.O., but they jerryrig their own. The also have more limited resources than D.O.D.O. They have the backing of the mysterious and powerful banking family, the Fuggers, and certain elements of the government. D.O.D.O. views this rogue group as enemies, but their powerful connections protect them.There are a few new DOers in this book. The rogue group has several moles inside D.O.D.O. Their best is Chira Yasin Lajani, a Syrian Kurd immigrant. Rogue D.O.D.O. is strapped for resources to recruit new agents. So when Tristan’s little sister Robin shows up for a visit, they send her back to Shakespearean England to rescue Tristan, who’s in trouble. She’s actually the perfect person for the job, being an actress, a recent graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and a Shakespeare nerd. In spite of being untrained, she does quite well. She’s smart and resourceful.Anyway, the DEDEs in this book are full of adventures, both humorous and tragic, chock full of historical details which the DOers relate in their After Action Reports. The venues are as various as Shakespeare’s England, 1397 outside Florence,fourth century Sicily, and Namonaki, Japan (outside Kyoto) in 1450. In all of these the rogue DOers struggle to undo the damage done by the diabolically clever Grainne and her D.O.D.O. subordinates.The title “Master of the Revels” refers to the little known but important Sir Edmund Tilney. His job was organizing and seeing to all details of plays and masques. He was the man behind Shakespeare’s success. He reported first to Queen Elizabeth, then to King James and Queen Anne. Robin, having studied Shakespeare’s time, had heard of him. He gives her a job.The audio was full cast and very well done. My only complaint would be that whoever read the chapter headings for Mortimer kept pronouncing his name “Mortimore”.

꧁ 3.5 stars ꧂ok look: this book met all my expectations, and i was invested in the plot. however, it was so long. the format and writing style just made it drone on and on and i spent weeks trying to get through the first 10%. even though it's only 560 pages long, it felt so much longer.HOWEVER: if you enjoy semi-accurate shakespearean self-insert stories, i think you would love this series! there's a lot of time travel (they give an explanation in quantum physics, but i didn't understand most of it) and some witchy things. there's a lot of terms, people and acronyms to remember, so it's definitely a time investment. also, for any DODO newbies, it's completely written in diary entries, after-action reports, random pieces of writing, emails, etc. i found the format really interesting when it's from people i liked reading about, but it gets boring if it's from the pov of someone random.so this book takes place mainly in shakespearean london (a whole lot goes down there) and partially in ancient rome. the "present day" parts are mostly wholesome found family moments (with a group of 30-somethings and an elderly couple so... not my typical demographic but it's fine cuz i love them) and some povs from the antagonists. GRAINNE NEEDS TO GO TF AWAY. SOMEONE TRIGGER DIACHRONIC SHEAR ON HER PLEASE :)the romance is pretty scarce and far between, but mel and tristan are ADORABLE TOGETHER and also i lowkey love (view spoiler)[robin and ned... but also can we talk about how ned casually threw himself into the river and i'm pretty sure nobody found him by the end of the book. so did he just dIE and robin decided "yknow what, nobody cares enough to go rescue ned"??? i need clarification! (hide spoiler)]so in summary: i liked most of the book. the plot and the characters were interesting, but the pacing was too slow for my taste. erzsébet deserved a bigger role in this, and also (view spoiler)[frank (hide spoiler)] died for nO REASON. I AM SALTY.ok thanks for reading my review. it was a bit all over the place but i hope you got the gist! also, thank you morrow group for the eARC; all thoughts and opinions are my own.꧁ find me at my socials ꧂insta | tiktok | youtube | twitter | blog(from february:)there's a book 2?? february just got 100% better!! i adored DODO so much, and i'm super excited to read about the next part of tristan, mel and gráinne's journey!

Who would have dreamed that when historical-fiction prankster Nicole Galland teamed up with Neal Stephenson for the original D.O.D.O. novel, she'd plan for a sequel set in Shakespeare's Jacobean England within a matter of months? Indeed, judging by the cliffhanger on which this book ends, who'd guess that this would turn into a multi-volume franchise about time-traveling witches working with U.S. intelligence agencies? The fact that Stephenson is not involved in this novel means that there is just a hint of his leavening missing, and the fact that this will soon turn into a rough-and-tumble series requiring a certain commitment to witches toying with multiverse collapses of probability waves means that one must be prepared for a series of paradoxical traps at times (even dreaded "diachronous shears," and one doesn't want that). But that's only enough cautionary flags to take this second D.O.D.O. volume to a high four-star ranking. In the end, who could resist a tense and horror-filled story told in slapstick Monty Python fashion? If Galland wants to keep this up for a while, she can count me in!It's hard to talk a lot about this book without revealing spoilers, so I'll use some of the substitution ciphers employed in the Byzantine mosaics featured in the book to explain something of what's going on. In the original Stephenson/Galland collaboration, the reader was introduced to the Department of Diachronous Operations, or D.O.D.O., a US intelligence agency that learned how to revive a forgotten art of time travel. Through accidental encounters with witches, the agents within this bureaucracy learned that it is possible to make very small changes (butterfly-wing-effect sort of stuff) to history by going back in time and monkeying with small details. One mustn't go for too large an effect, however, or large disruptions in the space-time continuum known as diachronous shears result. The purpose of the intelligence agency is to make tiny changes to Earth that serve U.S. imperial interests. Or at least that was the original D.O.D.O. charter.The modern time travelers learn that witches in a variety of cultures use a calculating device that is something like a mashup between an abacus, a cat-o'-nine-tails, and a macrame candleholder, to determine how to change a probability wave from one possible universe (a "strand") to another. What we interpret as witches "casting spells" is the simple re-orientation of probability-wave collapse so that one thing happens instead of another. A painting might be subtly changed, for example, or a family tree might be altered to allow for another daughter. One wouldn't want Christopher Marlowe to die at a different point than his formerly dedicated fate, however, or diachronous shear would result -- and not even witches want that.At the end of the first book, we learn that many of the witches of past centuries are pretty pissed off because magic essentially died in 1851 as photography was perfected. It was not until the advances of technology allowed for different types of time travel that the two worlds of witchcraft and spycraft come together. At the first novel's end, one particular Irish witch, Grianne, has put it upon herself to destroy the advancements of technology so that witchcraft might survive in the 21st century. Because of her methods, she is cast as the evil one throughout the first two books. But you can almost hear Galland asking the reader which side is really evil -- though she doesn't come to her own conclusions, even as she paints Grianne as quite the nasty character.As in the first novel, Galland uses a fragmentary writing style using diary entries, government documents, handwritten letters and the like to weave a story in a disjointed and multimedia way. I happen to love the technique, and find that she uses it effectively. Others may find it off-putting, and decide that the D.O.D.O. series is not for them. The warning I would provide is that if they can't handle Galland's methodology, they'll be lost in wilder multimedia speculative-fiction experiments like Mark Danielewski's Familiar series. Master of the Revels centers on the weeks in which William Shakespeare is preparing an initial production of Macbeth, initially for the Globe Theater, but later for a more intimate premiere of the play in the court of King James. The protagonists in the first book have all left D.O.D.O. because the director of the agency has fallen under the spell of the witch Grianne, and fails to realize that placing her in charge of missions could endanger all post-19th-century technologies on the planet. Thus, the founding members of the intelligence agency are operating in amateur rogue fashion using DIY technologies and alliances of witches who remain uncertain which visitors from the future they should aid or hinder.The critical ur-text for Shakespeare is the spell of the three witches in Macbeth, and the person responsible for approval of the text of Shakespeare plays is not the bard himself, but the Globe Theater's Master of Revels Edmund Tilney, a man who is part special-effect production manager and part censor. As various time travelers try to monkey with Shakespeare's texts across centuries, modern folios of Shakespeare's work suddenly become fuzzy or illegible right around that "Double double toil and trouble" line.As if this isn't enough to simultaneously befuddle and amaze the reader, there are subplots involving mosaics being placed on the floor of a Roman villa in the fourth-century era of Constantine, the appearance of a "Schrodinger's Cat" lacquer box in Kyoto in 1450 A.D., and the possible kidnapping or rescue of a Tartar slave in Florence in 1397. And did I mention the notorious Fugger banking family? They figure prominently here as well. Of course, no one but a history buff like Galland could pull this off, particularly in the salty and ribald way in which she tells the tale.Another caution -- if a fragmentary tale of time-travelers wasn't enough to confuse some readers, it's important to mention that reading this novel without its predecessor would increase the confusion exponentially. Galland has given readers a prologue and plenty of clues throughout the book, but D.O.D.O. is meant to be read from its first book, as a fantasy series still in gestation. Installment 2 is wild, fast-paced, scary, and ridiculous, all at once, and Galland has made clear that she can handle the ongoing epic without the continued help of Neal Stephenson.

I'd put this just a bit below the first volume but it's still very good. I would have liked a bit broader scope and I'm not sure the events in this volume accomplished a ton, but I really enjoy this world and characters. Looking forward to volume 3!

What an exciting and entertaining second installment in the story of DODO! This time around we’re treated to the misadventures of not only Mel and her company, but also Will Shakespeare and his. Abbreviations abound and hilarity ensues and no one is safe from any of it!I was a bit worried when I realized that Stephenson did not coauthor on this book, but Nicole Galland absolutely killed it on all counts. Not only did she bring her epic-nerd-level Shakespeare, but also great historical acumen and inventive character weaving as well. I hope we won’t have to wait as long for Book the Third!

This was a lot of fun. Compared to The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., which Nicole Galland coauthored with Neal Stephenson, Master of the Revels is much more playful. I think it's fair to say that's a difference between Galland and Stephenson. Stephenson has a sense of humor, but he is apt to leap into a 50-page treatise on orbital mechanics on any plausible provocation. That's OK -- I enjoy it -- but Galland's "We're just having fun!" attitude is refreshing. You will notice that the story here is about women and told by women. Two important male characters from the first book, Frank Oda and Tristan Lyons, are shuffled off the stage almost immediately and remain so for most of the book. The main characters are Melisande, Gráinne, Chira, and Tristan's sister Robin Lyons. The first three appeared in The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., but Robin, the real star, is new. Chira and Mel also have adventurous stories in past times. Gráinne surreptitiously (and sometimes openly) causes trouble for everyone.There are two more important male characters. Robin spends most of the novel in early 17th century England, where she interacts with two historical Edmunds: Edmund (Ned) Shakespeare, William Shakespeare's younger brother, and the man who lends the novel its title, Edmund Tilney, who holds the title of Master of the Revels under King James. Despite his star billing, Tilney is a second-tier character. Ned Shakespeare becomes Robin's main squeeze in the 17th century. Ned is a lot of fun. He writes a post-action report on one of Robin's missions in poetry. It is called “The Song of Edmund and Robin; or, Mend Thy Words”, and is a delight.

TL;DR Master of the Revels by Nicole Galland is a welcome return to the world of D.O.D.O. This fun story recaptured all the joy D.O.D.O. brought us. New missions, new characters, and more Erzsébet Karpathy make this a must read for D.O.D.O. fans. Highly recommended. Disclaimer: I was provided an eARC of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.< a href=https://primmlife.com/2021/02/09/revi... this and more reviews, please visit my blog at Primmlife.com Review: Master of the Revels by Nicole Galland Time travel is a staple of speculative fiction. When done wrong, it’s infuriating. When done right, it’s fun, and I’m all in. When I first picked up The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., I didn’t know what to expect. But soon I was all in for the ride. It’s focus on office mundanity, mixing witchcraft with science, and a distinct cast of characters won me over as a fan. So when I saw that its sequel, Master of the Revels by Nicole Galland, was coming out. I had to get it into my hands as fast as possible. Galland succeeded in furthering the adventures of the time traveling team. Master of the Revels puts D.O.D.O. operatives on the path to fixing the changes in reality their meddling caused.Master of the Revels picks up soon after Tristan Lyons, Melisande Stokes, Frank Oda, Rebecca East-Oda, Erzsébet Karpathy and Mortimer Shore leave the official D.O.D.O. This small resistance group creates a rogue D.O.D.O. to thwart Gráinne’s plans. The main plot of the story is a battle between Gráinne and rogue D.O.D.O. to influence the creation of William Shakespeare’s MacBeth. Tristan’s sister, Robin, is brought into replace him when he goes missing. Her knowledge of theater and its history make her an apt, if untested, agent. Her role is to befriend William Shakespeare and seek employment with the master of revels, Edmund Tilney. But Gráinne has multiple plots going. One involves a tiled floor in a Roman city, and another takes place in 1397 Florence around the freeing of a Tartan slave.I loved The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. It was a solid story told in a unique way. It took the form of epistolary fiction, i.e. diary notes, emails, and persistent chat logs. Master of the Revels keeps up this same form, and it worked just as well for me this time. The history suffuses the plots but doesn’t over shadow the action. In fact, I’d say this book was a bit more focused than its predecessor. The Shakespeare mission receives most of the page time, and it was fun. The other two missions were a little more straight forward but went off the rails more quickly than the Shakespeare mission. I thought there was good balance between the three; the mix kept me turning the pages. Characters Master of the Revels maintains the same strength that I loved in The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., the characters. Erzsébet is my favorite character hands down, and she gets a little page time here, not enough, but I really enjoyed her few moments. In addition to the carryover characters, we get new D.O.D.O. operatives, new historical characters, and the bard, himself, William Shakespeare. Master of the Revels has a broad cast of characters that all seem distinct. Whether its Roman sisters or a Florentine wagoner, even the minor characters are distinct and memorable. Too often, minor characters can fade into the background, but in Master of the Revels, they stand out without overshadowing the plot. History Much of Master of the Revels takes place in the past. There is a lot of excellent historical detail in here. How much is real and how much is made up for the story? I have no idea, and I think that’s great for alternate history fiction. I loved the settings, but of the three, the England of King James felt the most flushed out. Florence and Sicily had enough details to satisfy but not enough to be immersive. Robin Master of the Revels succeeds or fails based upon a new character, Robin Lyons. Robin is Tristan’s sister. She’s a theatre nerd who likes the history of English theatre. While she is different than Tristan in many ways, she has his same determination and quickness of thought. Seeing her go through Elizabethan England, we learn that she’s as much a survivor as Tristan. Her transition from innocent theatre nerd to Rogue D.O.D.O. operative is quick but enjoyable. Frankly, she was the more interesting choice to follow through the staging of MacBeth. I don’t think Tristan would have had as many adventures as his sister. Master of the Revels succeeds because Robin is likable, smart, and able to navigate a world foreign to our own. Gráinne In this book, we get a number of letters from Gráinne to a potential ally, who happens to be in the employ of the Fuggers. I loved this insight into Gráinne and her plans. Throughout much of the book, she seems like an extremely powerful force, and yet she’s not all powerful. Her advantage of initiative is countered by D.O.D.O.’s ability to operate as a team. Where Gráinne has to ensure the main D.O.D.O. branch and their operations conform to her plans, Rogue D.O.D.O. is able to dedicate multiple minds to various plans, which gives them better solutions and better operational work.Gráinne is an excellent villain because we understand – though don’t agree with – her reasoning for sabotaging technology. Her letters might be my favorite, non-Erszebet parts of the book. Part of it is the view into her process, but part of it is her reaching out to a fellow witch, seeking one of her kind in a foreign world. Those letters made her seem isolated in a way that I don’t think I got from the first book. Fuggers I love the Fuggers. They are so mysterious, and they are playing some sort of hand in the background that we don’t get to see. This multi-generational banking company is somehow the mediating force in present day Boston between Rogue and Gráinne’s D.O.D.O. operations. We got some explanation in the last book, but I feel like there’s more there. I’d love to know more about the Fuggers. Are they witches? Do they have some sort of magical role to play? Or are they just like other bankers, controlling the flow of information in order to profit? Hopefully, if there’s more books, we learn more about this organization and how they’re able to enforce a neutrality in Boston’s present. Conclusion Nicole Galland’s Master of the Revels is a fun and welcome return to the odd world of D.O.D.O. The lovable cast of characters gets expanded in a book that heavily features historical missions. Master of the Revels left me wanting more D.O.D.O.Master of the Revels by Nicole Galland is available from William Morrow on February 23rd, 2021.7.5 out of 10!

Full review: https://scepticalreading.com/2021/07/...Master of the Revels picks up right where DODO left off. Tristan, Mel, Frank, Rebecca, and the rest of the small team that had been cast out of the original D.O.D.O. programme have made Frank and Rebecca’s house their headquarters and are trying to stop Gráinne from changing history.Gráinne’s latest plan to prevent the evolution of modern technology involves changing the witch scene(s) in Shakespeare’s Macbeth by adding real, very dangerous spells. Of course, Mel and Tristan are trying their best to prevent this, which results in the reader spending time with Will Shakespeare, and the titular Master of the Revels, Edmund Tilney, in Jacobean London.

Another "Master"ful taleI absolutely loved this book, the wait was worth it. I've subtitled it in my library as "The Further Adventures of Tristan and Mel" this time joined by Tristan's sister Robin, who is an interesting and fun character to read. As expected, the mix of reports, letters and diary style entries is a refreshing change from the standard narrative style, all in first person or conversation mode, and as in the first book, gives the reader an amusing and complex experience while keeping up with what is a fast paced story. Now I want another one, surely the story can't be left there? Seriously, Gráinne can't be allowed to get away with it, we readers want to see her get her comeuppance. Over to you Nicole (pretty please)

The world of DODO is fascinating. Not your traditional time travel series, this has the making of a long interwoven series with many offshoot books. How one strand relates to another.... someone dies in one world , but are they gone in all of them? How does the butterfly effect really work? There are so many interesting places and times you can go. Besides this book humanizes Shakespeare .... he is one historical figure not talked about enough! Can’t wait for the next tale in this series!!!

D.O.D.O. (Well, sorta- no spoilers, you will see) goes to Shakespeare’s London to save the future! If you liked the first book and are a Bard nerd like me, you’re gonna get a kick out of this book as well. Time travel continues to be nowhere as straightforward as it seems, fortunately, and hijinks ensue when not one but two top-secret agencies battle for control of our timeline while managing funding, paperwork, and their office crush. Enjoyable reading.

A page-turning sequel to “The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.”, with a more significant amount of historical fiction than of science fiction.

A book about time travel

To fuck up time or not to fuck up time? That is the question.

Fabulous readThis is a second book in what I hope is a very long series. Galland’s writing is fresh and funny and lively, while the history of this historical fiction is well researched and compelling. Truly a triumph.