History Literature / Reamde

** Also a quite literal one: after being introduced to firearms at the beginning of the novel, Peter buys an [[CoolGun AR-15]]. [[spoiler: After it gets stolen, it falls into the hands of Sokolov, who uses it in the book's climax.]]

Richard Forthrast, a former marijuana smuggler, has founded the world's most successful MMORPG, ''T'Rain'', which is built around the concept of allowing players to make real currency exchanges within the game's virtual world. Recently, a virus called REAMDE has infected millions of players in ''T'Rain'', holding their computer files for a ransom of game currency.

* NextSundayAD: In Xiamen, a celebration/diplomatic meeting is said to be held on the 350th anniversary of Zheng Chenggong driving away the Dutch. Wiki/TheOtherWiki says this happened between 1661-1662, placing the events of the novel somewhere between 2011-2012. They also mention that ''Film/LoveActually'' (2003) was released almost ten years ago. The book was published late September of 2011.

* Fingore: Zula blocks a pistol's hammer with her little finger. First, the finger is very painfully pinched when the pistol's holder tries to fire. Then she yanks the finger ''out''.

Through a series of events, Richard's adopted niece Zula runs afoul of Russian gangsters whose criminal secrets have been hacked by REAMDE. She and a group of fellow hostages are abducted halfway across the world to help locate the hackers and deliver Mafiya-style vengeance. What transpires is a globe-trotting cat-and-mouse thriller as Zula struggles to stay alive and Richard uses all of his own resources to scour the globe. Along the way, they face crack mercenaries, international spies, infamous terrorists, back-country survivalists and more.

* TheWarOnTerror

* AuthorTract: Taken together with its sequel, ''Literature/FallOrDodgeInHell'', it becomes increasingly clear that Stephenson is very concerned about skin cancer. In ''Reamde'', Zula notes that the freckled Wallace has scars presumably where cancers have been dug out. Dodge also identifies by a scar on a terrorist's scalp that the man has terminal skin cancer, relating how he's seen similar scars on others. In ''Fall, or Dodge in Hell'', Dodge thinks about how, due to his fair complexion, he'd always assumed he'd die of skin cancer. Another character mentions that he always wears sunscreen and advises others to stay in the shade to avoid skin cancer.

In spring 2019, it got a sequel named ''Fall--or, Dodge in Hell''.

* DraftDodging: Richard did this to avoid being drafted for UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar , only to come back to the U.S. during Jimmy Carter's blanket amnesty. This earned him [[TheSoCalledCoward the scorn of many of his family members]] although not the ones who really know him.

* EmbarrassingNickname: Only his family calls Richard "Dodge".

* KarmaHoudini: Marlon, who steals $2 million from ''T'Rain'' players, keeps it and never suffers any ill affects for the rest of the story. [[spoiler: Sokolov]], who does a HeelFaceTurn, [[spoiler: escapes with a happy ending but suffers an amputated leg in the process]].

* MotherRussiaMakesYouStrong: Sokolov has many of the classic traits for this trope.

* PunctuationShaker: A discussed trope. The "hack" writer Skeletor has created a number of names with apostrophes, but the literature don grills him at length to determine what system of grammar he's applying to the apostrophes. Finally someone has to break in and state the obvious, that it's following RuleOfCool. The Don still insists on removing all the apostrophes in the "Apostropocalyse."

* TooDumbToLive: Wallace, the self styled cyber-criminal who [[spoiler: has his lap top set up so it will auto run whatever arbitrary .exe that happens to be on any USB stick plugged into it. Presumably he just clicked through the UAC warnings.]]

* UnclePennybags: Richard

* [[Fingore]]: Zula blocks a pistol's hammer with her little finger. First, the finger is very painfully pinched when the pistol's holder tries to fire. Then she yanks the finger ''out''.

* Fingore: Zula blocks a pistol's hammer with her little finger. First, the finger is very painfully pinched when the pistol's holder tries to fire. Then she yanks the finger ''out''.

* PlotShields: Jones believes that God is on his side, and there's a decent case to be made that he's right with the amount of times he cheated death.