I bought "Mogworld" because I'm a fan. There, I admit it. I went in with the assumption that it would read like a book Terry Pratchett could write when he was still funny, had he been playing WoW and used foul-language similes. Instead, I got a game review about how stupid Memorpegers are, told through the viewpoint of an apathetic people-hating existentialist, who violently died and was raised 50 years later as a quick-thinking sober and sarcastic zombie (in other words: Yahtzee, but with undead magical training).
Jim, the protagonist, is an interesting and smart story-teller, and he is burdened from the get-go with Meryl, the female side-kick, who's levels of delusion change as the plot requires, and Thaddeus, who embodies Richard Dawkins' idea of a religious person. If you are familiar with Yahtzee's taste in game relationships, you would recognize the banter and opposing forces of attraction and hate between Jim and Meryl, but there's no real sense behind it: at times it seems she's simply tied with a bungee-rope to Jim's backside so he'd have someone to talk to. The banter is good, though, and Yahtzee populates his world with a zoo of fun and quirky characters, striving to break the mold, and succeeds when to come to second and third tier NPCs (Slippery John is a gem, and the King and Baron Civious and his wife ("The Civiouses? The Civii?") are extremely cute). He falls flat when it comes to major antagonists; Barry, the driving destructive force that makes Jim get out of the gutter and do things, has nothing of the true spark of madness and brilliance that really makes a good villain; and Mr. Wonderful and Bowg just read as pale imitations of Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandermer, and don't live up to their expectations (the threat of violence and torture loses some of its horror when not only is death a temporary thing, but the main protagonist cannot feel pain).
Parts of the plot happen outside of the game-world, and since Yahtzee is committed to a third-person personal storyteller, we only learn of them when Jim does. I can see how an omniscient storyteller would harm the book, and this is definitely better, but it feels lacking somehow. A major part of the plot, the actions and motivations of Simon, one of the employees of the company that makes the game, weren't very coherent. But I guess it couldn't be helped.
Finally, the ending did not impress. Mogworld stayed honest throughout the book: Jim is a protagonist, not a hero. His motivations and actions are normal, and immediately recognizable to the reader, as he shares our bewilderment and resentment at some of the ludicrous assumptions we are expected to swallow and enjoy in most MMO's. However, fiction is also where we go outside ourselves, into a reality where we learn we can be better, and where we're made better by the crucible of the journey. Jim's sarcasm and angst never abate and leave room for hope or grace, and the book somehow opts out of the "fade-to-black" ending Jim both desires and earned, in favor of a "feel-good ride-into-the-sunset" moment that felt imposed, as if Jim's death would cheat the reader. It would have; I learned to love the character, and wanted to read more about him, but as Yahtzee knows, you should give your readers what's good for them, not what they clamor for.
I would recommend this book to anyone who both enjoys Yahtzee's writing and fantasy fiction; it was a good read, often funny, never boring. However, the book feels unripe, as if given more time, he could find more interesting to say about the made-believe world where we spend so much of our time, and more interesting characters to say them. I honestly believe Yahtzee's next book would be better, and I would certainly read it.
Maybe something about Japanese roleplaying games...
Jim, the protagonist, is an interesting and smart story-teller, and he is burdened from the get-go with Meryl, the female side-kick, who's levels of delusion change as the plot requires, and Thaddeus, who embodies Richard Dawkins' idea of a religious person. If you are familiar with Yahtzee's taste in game relationships, you would recognize the banter and opposing forces of attraction and hate between Jim and Meryl, but there's no real sense behind it: at times it seems she's simply tied with a bungee-rope to Jim's backside so he'd have someone to talk to. The banter is good, though, and Yahtzee populates his world with a zoo of fun and quirky characters, striving to break the mold, and succeeds when to come to second and third tier NPCs (Slippery John is a gem, and the King and Baron Civious and his wife ("The Civiouses? The Civii?") are extremely cute). He falls flat when it comes to major antagonists; Barry, the driving destructive force that makes Jim get out of the gutter and do things, has nothing of the true spark of madness and brilliance that really makes a good villain; and Mr. Wonderful and Bowg just read as pale imitations of Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandermer, and don't live up to their expectations (the threat of violence and torture loses some of its horror when not only is death a temporary thing, but the main protagonist cannot feel pain).
Parts of the plot happen outside of the game-world, and since Yahtzee is committed to a third-person personal storyteller, we only learn of them when Jim does. I can see how an omniscient storyteller would harm the book, and this is definitely better, but it feels lacking somehow. A major part of the plot, the actions and motivations of Simon, one of the employees of the company that makes the game, weren't very coherent. But I guess it couldn't be helped.
Finally, the ending did not impress. Mogworld stayed honest throughout the book: Jim is a protagonist, not a hero. His motivations and actions are normal, and immediately recognizable to the reader, as he shares our bewilderment and resentment at some of the ludicrous assumptions we are expected to swallow and enjoy in most MMO's. However, fiction is also where we go outside ourselves, into a reality where we learn we can be better, and where we're made better by the crucible of the journey. Jim's sarcasm and angst never abate and leave room for hope or grace, and the book somehow opts out of the "fade-to-black" ending Jim both desires and earned, in favor of a "feel-good ride-into-the-sunset" moment that felt imposed, as if Jim's death would cheat the reader. It would have; I learned to love the character, and wanted to read more about him, but as Yahtzee knows, you should give your readers what's good for them, not what they clamor for.
I would recommend this book to anyone who both enjoys Yahtzee's writing and fantasy fiction; it was a good read, often funny, never boring. However, the book feels unripe, as if given more time, he could find more interesting to say about the made-believe world where we spend so much of our time, and more interesting characters to say them. I honestly believe Yahtzee's next book would be better, and I would certainly read it.
Maybe something about Japanese roleplaying games...
