Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Calling all video gamers...here's a novel about designing, playing and ultimately becoming obsessed with fantasy and science-fiction games. The book involves two time periods: the halcyon early days of gaming, from 16-bit to 64-bit Commodore computing, and the contemporary world of realistic effects and virtual reality. One of the more significant questions the early pioneers wrestled with was, which is more important, the narrative arc of a story or graphics technology? While most opted for the former, one of the problems is that unpredictable and sometimes untoward things can and do happen in the world of games. Russell, the narrator of the story, had originally been one of the self-professed nerds who started writing code and creating games at a young age. He even graduated from college and had a year of law school before "dropping out" and joining some of his old friends at Black Arts games. The two leaders of this company were Simon, now deceased, and Darren, both held in awe by the gaming community. Simon was a true genius, with perfect scores on his SATs. Disdaining college, Simon developed a series of games that Russell discovers in a desk drawer. Meanwhile, Darren breaks away from Black Arts and takes most of the talent with him, leaving the inexperienced Russell in charge of designing a game that needs to be a blockbuster. Fantasy and reality get confused when Russell falls in love with a character on the screen. But, as he points out, why not? After all, she's "smart and confident and had amazing hair, and she was a princess." Reality is ever so much duller. While Russell becomes more and more obsessed with tracing Simon's legacy through the games he discovers, he begins to get equally involved in the game he's designing--and only negative things can come from this. While Grossman's imagination is fertile, the narrative is overly discursive and rambling.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

If you had the chance to design the ultimate video game with no restrictions, what would you do? Russell and his friends have pondered this question for years, delighting in imagining the endless possibilities. Finally, it seems that Russell has a chance to do just that when he joins Black Arts Games. He has come to the gaming industry after abandoning law school (and the conventional path to a "safe" career) in favor of following his dream. Maybe even more important, he has a burning desire to find out what happened to his friend Simon, who also worked for Black Arts and who died mysteriously soon after a hugely successful game was launched. Verdict Grossman (Soon I Will be Invincible) has written a highly genre-specific novel about the making of video games (the author is a game designer), and everything that could be said about video games from their inception until now (and into the future). Fans of Grossman's best-selling debut and die-hard gaming fans will want this.-Cynthia Price, Francis Marion Univ., Lib., Florence, SC (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

*Starred Review* Grossman, author of the delightful Soon I Will Be Invincible (2007), here draws on his own experience as a video-game designer to take us behind the scenes at Black Arts Games, a (fictional) video-game company poised to release a new version of one of its biggest hits. Russell, a new hire at the company (but an old friend of the company's founders), is thrown in at the deep end when a software bug is discovered that threatens to sink the new game. To find the source of the bug, Russell explores the history of the company, its founders, and his complicated relationships with them. Although it's structured as a mystery Russell tries to track down the source of the bug the way a detective might pursue an unknown perp the book is really a celebration of video games and their creators. It's full of terminology and dialogue that might seem like another language to the uninitiated reader (we do pick it up as we go along), but, mostly, due to his boundless enthusiasm for his story, Grossman never makes readers feel uninformed or left out in the cold. He invites us into the world of video games, introduces us to the people whose lives revolve around them, and makes us feel right at home. This is only Grossman's second novel, but, given the strength of this and his first book, we can only await his next offering with keen anticipation.--Pitt, David Copyright 2010 Booklist