Better Than Life

The first third of this book is fucking awesome. The Better Than Life bit. It's amazing. That's why I wanted to read this book. I saw that episode of Red Dwarf, and it was so good, I just had to read the book. And, that part of the book was great, but after that, it turns to complete horseshit.

Better Than Life is the most addictive game ever developed. It's a completely immersive virtual reality game, that allows you to create your own perfect world. Where Lister is living the perfect family life, in a small time, with the his lifelong love obsession Kristine. Where Rimmer is rich as balls, with all the hot bitches, and the biggest penis on the planet. Seriously, Rimmer goes to his Personal Body Tailor, because his current body had show more gotten a bit wrinkled. The tailor asked Rimmer how he likes his new body. "The penis could be a bit bigger," Rimmer says. "Sir, any bigger and it would be dragging on the ground," the tailor responds.

All this is great stuff. But, then they finally get out of the game, and the story turns to trying to rescue their spaceship from colliding with a rogue planet. Oh noes! Who the fuck cares?

Lister gets stranded on a garbage planet, and makes friends with 9 foot long cockroaches. Okay, that's a bit weird. But again, who the fuck cares?

So, here's some advice, if you want to read this book. Stop reading when they get out of Better Than Life. Because after that, you'll just want to kill yourself. show less

I actually read the Red Dwarf books before I watched any of the tv series, and I must say that I prefer the books. Don’t get me wrong, the tv show is brilliant, but I think that the books offer a more satisfying depth and continuity.

I have chosen to review ‘Infinity welcomes careful drivers’ and ‘Better than life’ together as they were written by the same two-person team who also created the tv series: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor. Scenes and episode ideas from the series are used throughout both books, and in a lot of cases these are built upon to expand them beyond the original scope. Regular viewers will recognise sections interwoven into the prose, as well as the familiar cast of characters, but the books also serve as an show more excellent introduction to the series for those who have no idea what I’m talking about. (For those people: Red Dwarf is a science fiction comedy set in the future where the moons of the solar system are colonised and space travel is commonplace.) I find it is satisfyingly similar to Douglas Adams’ style in that I can open the book at a random page and find something that will make me smile. show less

Better Than Life by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor is the second book based on the British science fiction comedy show Red Dwarf. The crew of Red Dwarf's journey to return to Earth gets interrupted when they find themselves trapped inside of an addictive virtual reality game and they must find a way to escape before their real world bodies die. This proves to be no easy task though since they can't leave unless they want to, and even after reaching that state they face many additional obstacles preventing their escape. This book was pretty funny and I enjoyed reading it just as much as the first book. Like with the ending of the first book, it didn't exactly end on a cliffhanger, but it did make me want to read the third book right away.

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This book picks up right where the first one left off, so you really do need to read Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers before reading this book. There are differences between the show and the books, so if you plan on watching the show as well, I'd recommend watching all of the seasons before starting on the books as going back and forth can get confusing. show less

Almost every Dystopian book about computers and virtual realities - see Ready Player One, James Dashners new series - probably found it's roots here...unless someone else did it ages ago.

Better than life is a computer simulation where your subconscious mind combines with technology to create the ultimate experience with one of it s first functions being to wipe your memory of the starting the game. For this reason many players simply never make it out as they don't realise they are in.

In this book the crew of Red Dwarf find themselves trapped in the game and trying to rescue each other. It is hilarious and scary as shit all at the same time.

The second of the Red Dwarf books which were written as supporting spin-offs from the TV series of the same name. The books flesh out the spare nature of the TV episodes, and are readable, but toward the end of the second book, I couldn't help feeling that the creative element had slipped away. No cigar. Read Jan 2012.

There isn't great continuity in the Red Dwarf books. The first book ends with them pretty much decided to leave 'Better than Life'. This book start off with it again, and takes the story to a very illogical conclusion.

The talking toaster is a great character that had a brief life on the TV Show. It does a great job in this book.

The problem for me was the whole Lister fighting for his life on the trash planet. It easy could have been removed.

I wish that the show had included the Earth as garbage planet segment with the giant, intelligent roaches, and I love the way the backwards planet was introduced in this book.