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 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.
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