P. Aaron Potter

Fun. I'm not quite sure I believe the underlying premise which I'll leave for you to discover on your won, but it's well written and an enjoyable take on the meta-gaming possibilities that immersive 3D gaming could bring. The title sadly shares it's names with vast numbers of other books, and indicates that the author hasn't done as much research as they could have. However much of the rest of the book is better.

We intersperse two main characters - Wallace 'Wolf' who's senior developer at the Games firm, recently taken over by a multinational. And Andrew 'Dru' who's a casual student gamer playing a 6th level thief, but basically a good guy doing the best he can.

Wallace is presiding over the rollout of the latest version containing enhanced textures and smells hoping to increase the number of players, which despite them having the best game hasn't been the most profitable. However he's noticed a few little odd glitches here and there, and on the day that his software team notice that there are a number of game areas present that they didn't code, he also gets a visit from the FBI. As for Andrew he's just enjoynigt he latest features making his way through small quests, and trying to avoid the ire of some more senior players who don't appreciate his 'goody-to-shoes' approach. He has no inclination at all as to why he's suddenly been included in a Epic level quest with some high ranking strangers, but Wallace knows there are some old fingers poking about the games code.

I was slightly irritated by the frequent jumping between the characters, sometimes little more than a sentence or two between switches. But the characterisation of gamers was well done with good recognition of the variety of people who enjoy gaming. The atmosphere of a quest based MMORPG was spot on, but the company areas slightly less so. It was supposed to replicate the feeling of taking a small band of developers doing something for passion through to the reality of a corporate megalith, but it didn't quite seem right. There was too much informality between the old and new staff, and not enough old guard clubbing together. The role of the boss' PA was perhaps exaggerated slightly, but the point was well made - but again just simply not possible in LaregCorp structures.

Enjoyable to read though, the deeper connections being skilfully brought to he surface later on. There was little in the way of hooks for a sequel and I'm curious to know what the author intends to do next.… (more)