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Game Slaves (2014)

by Gard Skinner(Favorite Author)

3.71 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0547972598 (ISBN13: 9780547972596)

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

HMH Books for Young Readers

review 1: Overall, Phoenix, his team, and their entire world make more sense as game characters than as real people. Despite being the supposed leader of their team Phoenix tends to go along with whatever the group wants to do rather than make his own decisions. Since the big decisions are made for him most of the time that means that any of his internal conflicts barely have time to be acknowledged before being swept aside as those around him jump headfirst into whatever conflict he's trying to rationalize. It actually feels a bit like a videogame from the perspective of the avatar, with the actual player rapidly mashing 'A' to get through the plot points and dialogue faster.As for the Inception-like twist at the end, it's total bullshit unless they had thought to ask the right que... morestion at the end, and even if they had it wouldn't make the ending any better or worse than how things are. The ending starts out with Dakota returning to claim that this supposed happy end they had been given with a life in the real world and the opportunity to slowly make their crapsack world a better place is actually just another game world simulation. Phoenix initially dismisses this but comes around as he considers various discrepancies in their situation. The problem is, most of these supposed inconsistencies happen early on in their adventure into the real world, which should imply that they had never left their game world in the first place. If they never went into the real world, that would put the original "You guys are real people hooked up to machines" revelation into question, making it very possible that they really are just computer programs allowed to think they're human. So instead of questioning whether or not they're still in a simulation, Phoenix should be going all the way back to the beginning to question whether they really are human clones or just super advanced A.I.s after all. Neither case would make this ending any better or worse off than they were at the beginning though, making the whole thing one big circle jerk of violence and surface level existentialism.
review 2: This was an interesting book. I'm surprised it doesn't seem more popular. I liked the story, and the world, but I had trouble connecting with the main character. He was kinda 1 dimensional through most of it. Which I think was kinda the point...but still. I did like him more towards the end, and if I had to be honest, it might have something to do with the fact he's male. I tend to read more books with female leads, not fair I know. The book did make me think, and it did surprise me, which is always good. I would look for something from this author again, but would hope it improved a bit too. less

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