Scott Jann

I saw Neil Gaiman when he was a guest on the wits radio show (I went to the live recording of the show at the Fitzgerald Theater). I realized that I've never read any of his books, so I decided that I should start. This book was an interesting tale of Shadow and his discovery of the Gods of the old world that traveled with settlers to the new world. The full-cast version of the audiobook is excellent, I recommend it.

I don't think anyone who grew up in the 1980s and played video games could not enjoy this book. I didn't play all the games the author references or even see all the movies, but I know them and loved to see them fit into the story. The future of VR was exciting to read about, even if a little scary. Also a future where companies can enslave people to repay debts is frightening and eerily plausible.

Some parts were predictable but the story was exciting and I very much enjoyed the book.

I was left with two questions: Did Wade ever tell his friends about the kill switch and did he give them superuser powers?

With a background in linguistics, I find this sort of thing very interesting. I like the stories and examples of language that he used, although I think it was a little to English-centric.

This book does a great job of showing the magnitude of the Star Wars franchise. He demonstrated just how pervasive references to the movie are in our society.

The book covered some of the early work by Lucas and some of the moments that went into forming Star Wars, like drawing space soldiers when he was young, asking for reel 2, dialog 2 when editing, Bill Wookey and how Darth Vader came from mixing a classic samurai helmet with a space suit.

After the long, difficult production that barely succeeded, he covered the release of Star Wars. I was too young to be there, but I never realized how big it was. People were obsessed. It invented the idea of a summer blockbuster.

He described the first reel of the film in great detail and it gave me chills, there was genius that, after so many times watching it, I didn't realize was there.

He gave some mention to the prequels from both perspectives, I was glad he gave time to their defense.

I really enjoyed this book, as would anyone who loves the movies. I came away with more appreciation of the movies and Lucas.

This was a great tour through the strange nature of possible parallel universes and other theoretical concepts at the edge of science. I love this stuff, and Michio Kaku does a great job of explaining everything, along with the backstory and in a way that I found very approachable.