The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.

The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. (2017), a science fiction book by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland, follows a scholar and a civil servant who must prove that magic once existed and that it is possible to bring it back to help society. Stephenson is an American speculative fiction writer. He enjoys exploring diverse subjects such as cryptocurrency and philosophy in his writing. Galland is an American historical fiction writer. She co-founded Shakespeare for the Masses, a theatre company that adapts Shakespeare's plays for wide audiences.

The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. takes place in America. The main characters are Dr. Melisande Stokes and Major Tristan Lyons. Tristan is a military intelligence operator at D.O.D.O., or the Department of Diachronic Operations, a top-secret government agency of whose existence very few people know. The agency serves one purpose—resurrect magic for the benefit of all humankind.

Melisande is a linguistics lecturer at Harvard University. Although she loves her job, it doesn’t pay well, and she feels that no one appreciates her talents. She is looking for adventure and new opportunities. One day, she meets Tristan in the halls of Harvard University; he has a proposition for her.



Tristan asks Melisande to translate obscure historical documents in exchange for a large cash sum. She asks him why he needs the documents, but he won’t give her a straight answer. He merely hands her a nondisclosure agreement and tells her to sign it or the deal is off. Melisande knows that the deal sounds too good to be true, but she signs the agreement anyway and starts working on the documents.

As Melisande translates the documents, she cannot believe what she is reading. The documents claim that magic existed and that witches are real. It is unclear why, but magic disappeared during the Industrial Revolution. The documents suggest there is a way to bring magic back for good.

With the documents translated, Tristan reveals more about D.O.D.O. and his role in the operations. The D.O.D.O. team plans to resurrect magic. They want to travel back in time to rewrite history so that magic doesn’t disappear. Melisande doesn’t see how any of this is possible, but Tristan warns her not to worry. She is responsible for the document translations and nothing more.



Tristan, on the other hand, must figure out why magic stopped working. The documents suggest that the Age of Enlightenment weakened magic and endangered witches. One document shows that magic disappeared entirely in 1851, around the time of the Great Exhibition at London’s Crystal Palace.

The Great Exhibition was a worldwide fair celebrating industry, commerce, and enlightenment. Around this time, photography grew in popularity, but somehow, cameras nullify the effects of magic. When someone took a photograph of the 1851 solar eclipse, magic jammed and stop working. Tristan suspects that it has something to do with wave function collapse, but he needs a scientist to help him figure out exactly what happened.

Tristan approaches Dr. Frank Oda, an ex-MIT physicist who once developed a device designed to prevent wave function collapse. It is a dangerous device, and Frank never completed it. Tristan, however, begs Frank to help him, because the device is D.O.D.O.’s only hope of success.



Meanwhile, Melisande continues her work for D.O.D.O. and Tristan. There is still a handful of documents to translate, and she only has six months to complete the job. One day, a woman called Erszebet contacts Melisande with another revelation—Erszebet, a witch from the past, needs Melisande’s help to return home.

Melisande won’t help Erszebet until she tells her more about D.O.D.O. and its operatives. Erszebet tells Melisande what Tristan and the team plan on doing and how dangerous their operation is. Melisande doesn’t see how she can help Erszebet, but she promises to do whatever she can.

Finally, Melisande discovers the truth behind Tristan’s plan. He doesn’t just want to restore magic. He wants to rewrite history. He plans to tamper with historical events to help the US government. Melisande thinks that he is crazy, but he swears there is a noble purpose behind it all. If he can rewrite history, there is a chance he can prevent war, strife, and the economic crash.



There’s only one issue with Tristan’s plan—if he is not careful, he will trigger a magical explosion and erase the present day. To minimize the risk, Tristan brings witches from 1851 into the present. He needs them to stabilize the boundaries while he alters historical events. In the meantime, he sends agents back in time to significant historical periods in the hope of gaining more information about magic and its uses.

Meanwhile, Erszebet and the witches from 1851 work against Tristan. They don’t care about D.O.D.O.’s future; they only care about erasing photography to prevent magic from disappearing. They send Melisande back in time, not planning to bring her back until order is restored. The book ends with Melisande stranded in 1851 with no hope of returning home.