This novel is going to be of increasing interest, because it’s about to be released as a major motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg, which is a remarkable success for any author’s first novel.
It’s a success on other counts as well. I’m not and never have been much of a gamer, and as a result I had zero chance of anticipating the solutions to some of the puzzles in the book, but I still found it an easy and entertaining read. The book is and the film will be of particular interest to techno-geeks (a category in which I include myself) partly for the huge number of period film, game, music and pop culture references. I mean, you have to love any story that has Max Headroom piloting an Firefly-class freighter, right? Still, that is also one of my minor complaints, that and a thousand other references in the book are amusing but just throw-aways that are not really developed in the book and not really relevant to the plot, they’re just sort of mentioned in passing. Oh, well.
For the record I missed my guesses on most of the clues- my (even historic) lack of obsession with pop culture, music and gaming worked against me in that respect- when one of the clues is a square of paper-backed foil like that used to wrap some candies my first though, though I considered it unlikely in context, was of the trick of using such paper with any common electrical battery to create fire. I don’t think I’m spoiling anything to reveal that that turns out not to be the case. What the clue pointed toward turned out to be one of those things that might be easier to guess looking at it on screen than reading it in text.
I did “get” every alias thrown out there in the book, most of which are not explained to the reader.
There are other things that could have been a bit better- some of the characters lacked much development, and in particular I found the ending just a little flat and simplistic. In print it could have used another plot twist or two. Perhaps on screeen, with all the distractions of special effects and action it will be more effective.
In any case, as I said it was an easy, fast, enjoyable read, and I don’t regret the time, but I think it has the potential…. potential, mind you… to be a better movie than it was a book. Much of it seems to lend itself to that treatment, as though the author had that in mind, or just thinks very visually. On the other hand, one should never underestimate Hollywood’s ability to ruin anything. We’ll see shortly. I may not be among the first, there are very few movies that interest me enough these days to spend the cost of a dinner out to see, especially with the addition of 3D and IMAX versions the sheer price of admission seems to have driven them past the point of diminishing returns in most cases and I’ll probably wait at least until I’ve read some reviews, and maybe for a version on disk… but I’m not concerned that saying so will wrongly steer many to skip seeing the film in the theaters, because if this is the sort of thing you really should see you probably already know that,and know all about it.
– Robert the Wombat