This is my third book by the author. I was already a fan going in. Enough of a fan to pick up a book over 400 pages (yes, I don’t love fat books and I cannot lie), enough of a fan to read a book about video games (not really my jam either).
So yeah, I did it and it was good. The writing just as terrific and engaging as I expected based on previous works. In fact, a writing so good it completely overrode most elements I didn’t much care for. If one was to describe this book, using other well-known books, and yes, it is grotesquely reductive but it’s all the rage and all the kids are doing it, this book is Adventures of Kavalier and Clay meets Ready Player One. Mind you, it’s nowhere near as good as the former (and few books are), but it’s substantially superior to the latter, which I found to be extremely overrated. Which is all to say, this is a book about a longtime friendship between two creative individuals and a story about their real lives intermingling with the fictional video game worlds they create. This is a story about Sam and Sadie and their complicated, loving, antagonistic, devoted, all-encompassing friendship of two plus decades. A friendship that gets challenged over and over again by the trials and tribulations of life and emerges battered but not defeated. It’s a story of second chances, as the title hints at, the infinite possibilities and endless opportunities of the willing and able, in real and virtual lives. In fact, the two are often cleverly juxtaposed for maximum effect. It’s a sort of proper literary novel that grabs you, draws you in and doesn’t let go. It has the power to delight you, to charm you, to emotionally devastate you and it knows it and relishes in it. It’s a novel good enough to make the not-especially likeable characters compelling. It’s a novel good enough to make a not-especially interesting (to some) subject of gaming compelling. So yeah, it’s long but worth it. Not a perfect novel by all means. Or not a perfect novel for me, I should say. Kavalier and Clay had comic books, which are awesome. Games…not so much. The author is a gamer, her enthusiasm shows. The main characters I didn’t especially like. I’m not even going to get into the tragic fate of the character I did like. But honestly, those are pretty small potatoes in a large perfectly seasoned and cooked stew that is this novel. Or no, maybe that metaphor doesn’t work – potatoes are always delicious. At any rate, this was a very good, just about great read that’ll remind you of the magic powers of real literature. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.
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