Story: 2.0 / 10
Characters: 7
Setting: 7
Prose: 6.5 ( )

It took a long time to get in to, and once I was in deeper, the narrative was confusing at times. Grossman told the story from Russel's perspective, but it jumped between personal narrative and flashbacks that weren't always apparent. Part of that could have to do with the fact that I read the Kindle copy rather than print.

All that said, I enjoyed the book. I know a lot of it was a little stereotypical of programmers and game designers, but the idea of a single game so wide and sweeping is interesting and exciting and made for a good finish. ( )

A spiritual, fictional sibling to [b:Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter|7059033|Extra Lives Why Video Games Matter|Tom Bissell|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1356909143s/7059033.jpg|7310818] and, like that book, nearly an opposite to the dreadful [b:Ready Player One|9969571|Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)|Ernest Cline|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1500930947s/9969571.jpg|14863741]. Whereas that last seeks to overwhelm the reader with its cleverness and bury in arcana, this book is interested in decoding and understanding the pleasures of video games and genres and what they mean to people on both surface and deeper levels.

Also, it pulls off a neat narrative trick in that there are three stories going on. In a weird way, the book it most reminded me of is [b:Skippy Dies|7146335|Skippy Dies|Paul Murray|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1301970939s/7146335.jpg|7410973], which is high praise indeed. My one minor quibble is that it has a multi-coda wrapup that goes on for a while too long. But that is small beer to complain about. ( )

The story was all right. I didn't find myself cheering for the characters, but the story blended the reality of the world, the realty of video games, and the fantasy life of gamers. The book draws attention to the four most common team PC and NPCs in video games and how they appear in various genres. It leaves the parallel between those archetypes and the Black Arts staff as an exersise for the reader. ( )

This is a fantastic book, or maybe mirror, or maybe second player game through a version of your life. After all, you're 28 years old and never really figured out where you wanted to be going, and that English degree isn't helping you as much as you thought it would at the time, but that's OK, because in the end, you get to tell your own story, even if you're borrowing someone else's to help you along. ( )