Worth The Candle, by Alexander Wales Synopsis: A D&D nerd is warped into an RPG video game (maybe?) where he has to survive, level up, and figure out what the heck is going on. Book Review: This is one of my favorite books ever. I put off reading this for a long time, because it was Lit-RPG, and I thought Lit-RPG was embarrassing and self-indulgent and couldn't be taken seriously. I eventually realized I was being a tremendous elitist prick, and I really hate elitist pricks, and I love everything else Alexander Wales has written, so I should at least give it a shot. I then did little else with my free time for the next few months as I read this non-stop, because I fell in love right away. To start with, the protagonist is emotionally damaged from page 1 in a way that I love my protagonists to be. I like seeing people on the edge of falling apart. He's also a total nerd, and the portrayal of nerdom here is authentic and perfect. He talks the way my people talk, and thinks the way they think. He is immersed in late 20-teens culture. He immediately recognizes the tropes of modern story telling and modern gaming. He uses the fact that he's in a video game, and he knows it, to manipulate the world to good effect. He's sarcastic, enthusiastic, jaded, and funny, in exactly the right proportions. Wales himself, of course, continues to be a master of storytelling, making it impossible to stop turning pages. But the thing that really draws me in, the thing that cements this as a book I'll never forget, and which has prompted me to create a
SF/F Review – Worth The Candle
SF/F Review – Worth The Candle
SF/F Review – Worth The Candle
Worth The Candle, by Alexander Wales Synopsis: A D&D nerd is warped into an RPG video game (maybe?) where he has to survive, level up, and figure out what the heck is going on. Book Review: This is one of my favorite books ever. I put off reading this for a long time, because it was Lit-RPG, and I thought Lit-RPG was embarrassing and self-indulgent and couldn't be taken seriously. I eventually realized I was being a tremendous elitist prick, and I really hate elitist pricks, and I love everything else Alexander Wales has written, so I should at least give it a shot. I then did little else with my free time for the next few months as I read this non-stop, because I fell in love right away. To start with, the protagonist is emotionally damaged from page 1 in a way that I love my protagonists to be. I like seeing people on the edge of falling apart. He's also a total nerd, and the portrayal of nerdom here is authentic and perfect. He talks the way my people talk, and thinks the way they think. He is immersed in late 20-teens culture. He immediately recognizes the tropes of modern story telling and modern gaming. He uses the fact that he's in a video game, and he knows it, to manipulate the world to good effect. He's sarcastic, enthusiastic, jaded, and funny, in exactly the right proportions. Wales himself, of course, continues to be a master of storytelling, making it impossible to stop turning pages. But the thing that really draws me in, the thing that cements this as a book I'll never forget, and which has prompted me to create a