## Review Date #note/sourcereview/book | #source/book📚/fiction ## What is the story I really enjoyed this book about imagining a world where magic exists, and how science and the US government would interact with magic. In this quite long audiobook, the lead characters participate in a secret government organization, the Department of Diachronic Operations (DoDO) dedicated to sending people back in time using a combination of magic and science. Those people can influence the past in ways useful to them, the organization, and the government. Of course, the wheels fall off the whole project resulting in chaotic moments like ancient vikings entering and marauding a Walmart in Lexington, MA. The authors made a number of fun, silly, serious and interesting "What if ..." brainstorms, then brought concepts to the end of the path. How would time travel interact with the witches who are being used to help move people through time, and what they care about? How would the organization grow? What would the HR issues be? How would document and vocabulary control work? What would the organization halloween party be like? I listened to the audiobook, which was fun and had multiple narrators. Although, at times, the story is told through memo's, email chains, diary entries, etc. These at times could be somewhat cumbersome to listen to. Overall, this was one of the most entertaining books I've listened to in a great while. Nice and light, which was perfect for 2025 when so much is heavy. ## When do I want to stumble across this? #on/magic | #on/time | #on/witches | #on/story ## Source: ISBN 978-06-240916-4 ## References, Quotes, Ideas > "The conventionally accepted explanation for this is that storytellers have a power of imagination that makes them good at inventing counterfactual narratives. In the light of everything we’ve learned about Strands at DODO, however, we can now see an alternate explanation, which is that storytellers are doing a kind of low-level magic. Their “superpower” isn’t imagining counterfactuals, but rather seeing across parallel Strands and perceiving things that actually did (or might) happen in alternate versions of reality." Neal Stephenson, [The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. (D.O.D.O. #1)](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32075463-the-rise-and-fall-of-d-o-d-o) ```dataviewjs dv.list(dv.pages().where(p => p.file.outlinks.some(link => link.path === dv.current().file.path)).map(p => p.file.link)) ```