I was just talking about how much of a slog I had in a prior book. This book was not like that. I had to tell myself to slow down… Slow down, Andy, it’s going to end, you need to enjoy it… NOOOO… flipflipflipflip… NOOOOOO…. WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT’S ENDING HERE?
Yea. I got a bit involved.
It was a blast though. This book evolves quite nicely where its predecessor leaves off. Axel is thrust further into events out of his control, and the rest of the world that is on his side is trying to help him, elevate him, or utilize him—what does he want though?
To be as invisible as possible.
I find it all a bit weird in some senses. We have an artist, a hacker, a gamer—a gamer with some deep love of the sport and building of games, but when reality crosses his path, he really wants to introvert out of it like an inescapable gravity well. Meanwhile, nearly everyone from his lover, friends, cohorts, protectors, and parents, all have their heads screwed on really well and are working really hard at the reality that is before them—just not Axel.
Maybe some of this is his childhood and how hard that scarred him. It’s hard for me to relate, but that’s nothing terribly new. I really enjoy everyone surrounding Axel, but I’m not so much of a fan yet of Axel himself, yet. He’s grown from his YA origin and I can sense the man lurking in his psyche somewhere. I hope that we continue to see his maturation and engagement rise over the series term since everything else in my humble opinion is just freaking a space-fan-fun-fest of growing epic proportions. Hell, Brad could spin off some novelettes from other perspectives within the solar system and Earth to supplement here where our vision is obscured. Great world building is at foot here.
This book was one more stepping stone up to the stage that has yet to be fully realized. The engineering and technology, the politics, the craftsmanship to the world, its history, and the bio-collapse within a limited energy sphere, the utilization of a noosphere of biologicals rigged into technology. Freaking fantastic.
Come on board, have a good time, hold on to your own headspace because the traveling time is quick and you’ll go back and re-read elements trying to understand through a limited imagination and severely hampered visual cortex what-the-what is going on. After stepping out of the movie Ready Player One, I have some gleanings of how all this looks but I’d love to see it better—(any artist out there?)
Brad, keep up the good work. You’ve got momentum on your side and I hungrily await the embattled future to behold. This was a really fun ride and I’ll be re-reading it soon just to give myself a bit more time and a better pass at the dream you’ve made reality.