Reading The Fall by Neal Stephenson. It's a sequel to REAMDE, which I really enjoyed reading for the second time this year—the first time being eight years ago (I think?). So far, The Fall is exploring a lot of the same concepts as the animated series Pantheon: life after death, uploaded consciousness (or intelligence), physical reality vs perceived, immortality. The series started production in 2018, and the book was published in 2019; these ideas must have been in the zeitgeist I guess.

Considering the genre of the first book (MMORPG hacker spy international criminals thriller), I'm really surprised Stephenson was able to adapt and develop these characters into a story with this kind of theme. Digging it.