Stephenson, Neal. Reamde. Morrow. Sept. 2011. 960p. ISBN 9780061977961. $35.

Having fled to British Columbia decades ago to avoid the draft, Richard Forthrast then amassed a fortune transporting marijuana over the border to Idaho. Now he spends his time playing a power-wielding online fantasy game and his money buying viral gold and other necessaries from Chinese gold farmers and, finally, launching his own techie start-up. Alas, one of the gold farmers sets off a virtual war for dominance that could be the end of Richard. The noted author of such speculative works as 2008’s Anathem, which debuted in the top slot of the New York Times best sellers list, Stephenson returns with another blockbuster (note the length) that might profitably be read with Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, coming in June, or Cory Doctorow’s 2010 YA title, For the Win, which adult readers can appreciate.

http://www.harpercollinscatalogs.com/harper/516_1942_333034333131.htm

‘The highly inventive, brilliant author of Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, and Anathem returns returns with his most accessible novel to date, a high-stakes thriller in which a wealthy tech entrepreneur gets caught in the very real crossfire of his own online fantasy war game.’

It’s also interesting every mention of this over the last year or so called it “Reamde” and insisted that that wasn’t a typo. But apparently it was a typo.