Mia Archer

An interesting book that combines a gaming experience, convention experience, and romance. Did quite well, that combining.

There is a big need to suspend your disbelief. Willing suspension of disbelief. For several reasons. Mostly because the underlying idea of two people meeting via a gaming platform and then instantly bonding in about three seconds flat then having one being willing to spend massive amounts of money on the other requires a certain amount of suspension of disbelief. On the other hand, I've seen direct evidence of this type of situation occurring. It just feels, on the face of it, absurd.

Pushing all of that off to the side, my biggest issue is just the gaming portion itself. While it was neat to see the main character wrapping this story around herself as she operated inside the world, I had a hard time figuring out what she was thinking to herself, and what she was actually conveying to others online. There seemed to be a mixture of her thoughts, the type of thing she wouldn't write inside the gaming world, mixed with the thoughts of her character (those she might write in the gaming world).

Personally, I always had found it a little off-putting to 'read' someone's thoughts. Hints, sure, but I never knew what to do with actual sharing of thoughts.

As in:
Man thinks to himself, hmm nice breasts.
Woman: Howdy.
Man continues thinking about breasts.
Woman waves her hand in front of the man's face, trying to get his attention "Howdy? Anyone home?"
Man: I'm thinking about your breast.
Woman looking at him, then down at her breasts, then up again "Well, they are right here, you don't have to hurt your brain so much. They are right here."

My point being, there were long passages in the beginning. Implying stuff that was happening in the game. Assuming the game was a multiplatform 3d environment, a lot of the 'description' type stuff wouldn't actually need to be said/written. Then there were thoughts, and the like. Was the main character actually having these thoughts written onto the screen? Or was the main character just, you know, thinking to herself? As in, was the thoughts being conveyed by the digital avatar, or just being kept inside the head of the meat-person moving the mouse, and typing?

That's always a problem when attempting to convey playing a game. Showing scenes of that playing within a book. I've come across this issue many times. Sometimes it's conveyed quite well, sometimes quite poorly.

Also, the main character went from love-dove to crying needy person way too quickly and easily.

Still, I found the book enjoyable despite these thoughts I share here.… (mehr)

I might be a little harsh with the rating, but I ended up really hating this book by the end.

This was another one of those cases for me where the cover and the concept are great, but that doesn't necessarily mean good execution or good writing.

Imagine reading an action scene that is supposed to be fast-paced, exciting, and fun. Now imagine there is one page of inner monologue between any two actions. No, seriously, that's the entire book. I admit that the villain's voice was sometimes funny, but mostly it felt repetitive, and just... too much. Like, gods, please stop randomly reminiscing or mentally commenting on everything and let me read what's happening! Is everyone just... standing there while you think about this stuff?

Another thing that bugged me is... Listen, I know we're all used to superhero movies where the superhero puts on a glass or changes their clothes and suddenly nobody recognises them. It's silly, but we all accept it. That's fine. But the super villain called Night Terror literally uses the last name "Terror" when she goes undercover, and nobody makes the connection? That's not even an actual name, people.

Ultimately, this was a really, really frustrating read, especially like, the last 30% in the ebook.

A few positive things, just so this review isn't entirely negative: I enjoyed the beginning where Night Terror interacts with the cops (although the repetitive/too much narrating was definitely a thing there too). I also enjoyed the random, casual references to past events, like Night Terror single-handedly fighing off an alien invasion.… (mehr)