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| Bookcover Art from amazon.com |
There are times when a book is created to make things better and bring beauty to the world. Sometimes books also make a person feel better just because it's a fun story.
Strap in campers, this is a bumpy ride, and we have zombies on our tail, and a Roman Legion at our backs, but thankfully we have a box of Hot Pockets and a server cloud. Join me for a review of “Prisoners of the Game” by Tim Allen.
Opinion
I do want to credit Book Tasters (@booktasters on Twitter) for sending this book my way, even though initially I was not a fan.
Let me be very candid here, the prologue, and first three chapters were frustrating to me. I'm a logical person, and I like my facts like I like my tea, with nothing extra in it and cold. I've said this in other discussions with writers, but I'm going to go on record to say what a prologue to me as a reader should be. If I cannot find out through reading the book what is going on, but there is information that I need to know for the fulfillment of the climax, then that information needs to go into a prologue. If there is any other reason a prologue is there, it's a waste of time to read it.
In this case, the prologue was not only rehashed in the first few chapters, but it also was contradicted by direct discovery during the reading. There are huge problems with the timeline that is presented for the series of events that are given in the prologue. There are issues where I feel researching it could have solved them all.
I tell you all of this because I want to be very honest here, the beginning of this book was most certainly not my cup of proverbial tea. The most significant point that I want to make is, without the prologue the book wouldn't need such editing, nor research things like how governments react to that many dirty bombs going off globally. I contend by entirely removing the prologue, contradictory statements in the first chapters, and only put the focus on where the simulation was needed, the plot where government trained military soldiers who play video games in a cloud to save the world, this book would have been a real gem.
When we get to the main crux of the story, the story became amazing. I loved the premise of the idea that games can save a planet, and I enjoyed the adventure inside the cloud server.
The best part of it, I was able to suspend my disbelief and tell that logical set of brain matter to just shut up and enjoy this book. Were it a film, it would have been popcorn munching, sipping sticky soda romp for several hours, in other words sheer goodness. For example, the author had this fantastic idea that there are zombies one moment, and a Roman legion the next and it WORKED beautifully in this setting. It became one of the most fun things I've read in a long time. I loved how the characters interacted, no longer were wooden, and had real dimensions and pacing improved once the cloud server portion began. The book ended in a satisfying way.
However, with that rocky beginning, it took what could have been a great book filled with adventure, and transformed it into a good book. Good is okay, and not a bad book to read.
So what do I give this interesting tale of video games and quirkiness? I give this a 60/100. Honestly, that beginning was just rough enough with all the issues, to knock 40 points off. However, the 60 that remains is worth it and closes out the read.
