Andrew

Fun LitRPG

Reviewed: 04-26-21 Listener received this title free

I received a free copy for an unbiased review.

I didn't know what to expect from this one, but I really liked the angle the author took with how/why the MC in in a LitRPG world.

The character's progression and the action sequences are well done, but the book really shines in some of the more complex relationships between characters. Also in the non-cookie cutter aspects of some of the characters. The ending set up for a sequel/series, and I hope these complexities are explored even further.

The narrator's performance was over-the-top, and it worked quite well for this story. It made for an all-around fun listen.

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Fantastic

Reviewed: 03-04-21

Fantastic. One that will even better on a reread.

My only small issue is with the narration. I love the narrator’s voice, but the pauses between sentences are usually too long—especially in the dialogue. My guess is a lot of the lines were recorded one at a time and then spliced together.

It’s a small irritation that kind of builds up over time. It adds a feeling of awkwardness to scenes that shouldn’t be there.

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A Fascinating Memoir

Reviewed: 01-12-21 Listener received this title free

I received a free copy of the audiobook to review. I will try to be as unbiased as possible, but full disclosure I grew up with Sierra. I played SQ, KQ, EQ, The Realm, QfG, Dr. Brain, TIM, PQ, BaK, BiA, PAiT, LSL, Hoyle, CoL, RB, TP, and a few others.

That should put me in square in the middle of a relatively small target audience. However, I feel that the real target audience is even closer to home. It feels like a book written for Ken Williams’ family, friends, and former employees. Those that experienced Sierra firsthand and may have lingering questions as to what exactly happened and what Ken Williams was thinking with his decisions.

The book feels almost like a conversation with him. Or more accurately, listening to him tell the story of his life. He reached out to friends for details or googled information more often than exhaustively researching facts. If there was something he couldn’t remember, he said so. He talked about several choices throughout his life that he would probably make differently now, but he stood by his choices. He acknowledges that he wasn’t always right, that he was cocky, that he wasn’t easy to work for, and this book is his side of the story.

It makes for a fascinating memoir. I mean, he was almost a household name. Sierra had so many firsts... graphical game, online game network, IBM compatible game, game on CD, game using a music card, online casino, personal finance software, BASIC compiler, etc. If he had made one or two choices differently, he would be a Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, or Jeff Bezos. Several books have been written about those that made it all the way to the top, but how many memoirs have been written by those that were this close?

Probably a lot, actually. But there are a lot of biographies on my TBR list, and they’ve been there a while. I read this as soon as I found out it existed, and I enjoyed it.

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1 person found this helpful

Great Introduction

Reviewed: 01-02-21

It’s broad, but not too deep.

Ken Albala obviously has a passion for the topic, and has a lot of fun. He reminds me a lot of Michael DC Drout lecturing on Tolkien or Fantasy. Maybe it’s the singing.

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Almost Great

Reviewed: 01-02-21

It feels like it was lacking something. A twist or some other element or facet to the story. The plot just seems too simple for the expansive world building, beautiful prose, and complex MC.

Hopefully there is a sequel in the works.

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2 people found this helpful

This... did not age well

Reviewed: 01-02-21

All the women in the story were objects being manhandled by the men. The MC was an anachronistic hippie named Stay High. All the dialogue was heavy-handed boomer slang. I mean, there was a group of robots called Big Boppers and the MC smoked a lot of reefer joints.

The author’s prediction of future technology also seemed half-hearted. He was writing about 2020 (coincidentally when I read it) in 1982, which I’m sure wasn’t easy, but he didn’t seem to do much research about potential technical innovations. They backed up entire human consciousness on 1TB magnetic tapes using coaxial cables. I guess tape backups and high speed coax (DOCSIS 3.0 and 12G-SDI) are still around, but fiber optics and Ethernet were both starting to be deployed by 1980 and hard drives have been around since the 50s. And Moore’s Law was a thing by 1980. The technical portions would have held up better if he went softer and didn’t mention specifics—ironic since the author is a computer scientist and mathematics professor.

More of a focus on the philosophy of science and less on mysticism would have held up better as well.

All the boomers moving to Florida and Social Security running out did hit pretty close to the mark though.

Also, the author tried to make it sexy, but it just came across as sleazy. Neckbeard boomer sleazy.

I don’t know if it was the first story to come up with the Ghost in the Shell and natural selection software development concepts or not. Kudos if it was, but in 2020 these aren’t novel concepts. It’s been done much better.

It just... really didn’t age well. I did finish it, but I won’t be reading the sequels.

The narrator’s performance seemed halfhearted as if he also wasn’t a fan of the work.

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3 people found this helpful

Fun book influenced by Final Fantasy and Harry Potter

Reviewed: 01-02-21

I listened to a free copy of the audiobook provided by the author for an unbiased review.

Fun book! It is a hero’s journey with setting heavily influenced by Final Fantasy and Harry Potter. (It even has minor characters named Cid, Biggs, and Wedge—the latter two of course being FF’s nod to Star Wars.)

Magic and highly advanced tech share a world tidally locked. They have the technology to get to other planets, but have been blockaded and at odds with each other for a long time.

Since I listened to it, I’m honestly not sure if it is a graphic novel or a novel with illustrations. I enjoyed it as an audiobook, and I’ll probably get the book copy at some point to see the art.

It is aimed at younger readers, but it was great to geek out to as an adult. I am looking forward to continuing the series.

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1 person found this helpful

Outstanding Book

Reviewed: 08-27-20

This story is outstanding.

The start is a little slow as the world is being set up and the characters are introduced, but that exposition is necessary for the complexity of the story and characters.

This is one of the best explorations of relationships I've ever seen--husband/wife, in-laws, parent/child, siblings, old flames, friends, master/student, internal politics, external politics, and internal battles. I can think of one or more profound examples of each of those in this book.

The flashbacks for one of the characters to her youth seems a bit jarring at first, but make sense in the greater scope of the author's work. And are necessary to explain the character's motivations and abilities. Those other stories are YA superhero crime-fighting, while this is a mature fantasy in a setting based on traditional Japanese culture. The settings seem to be at odds, but make more sense as the book progresses.

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4 people found this helpful