AnsemPaul
Since: Oct, 2010
05/10/2013 00:00:00
I dunno, for one thing this works in reverse, adults can enjoy it and will get a flash out of reading it, and the deeper stuff works, the stuff about treating wars as a game, as viewing the enemy as nothing more than inhuman mobs to be killed (if anything this seems more relavant now than when the book was written), striving to win at any cost no matter what, and all of the humour that doesn't rely on cultural references.
And Possibly even the Alien jokes, even if I had heard mode than enough "In X no one can hear you scream" jokes.
I still think this is by far the strongest book in the Maxwell trilogy, and one of the greatest, cleverest books I have ever read.
Leave a Comment:
Only You Can Save Mankind - Sadly Lost
This is a book that can no longer be appreciated and unlike many such books, that is a loss.
OYCSM is the first of the Johnny Maxwell trilogy and is tied forever to that moment where gaming was just emerging on the computers. It's treasures are for those whose games had manuals that were heavy than the case they came in, who blew up aliens ships in space sims, who were posed the profound question of (Y/N)? and who were familiar with a joystick outside the arcade. Some things don't change, DRM was as big an issue then as now and as always Only You Can Save Mankind. But we no longer belong in an era where the PR people will enthusiastically talk about "Full Sound and Graphics!", like bacteria even market researchers can evolve and this book is so clearly meant to resonate with that experience.
But unfortunately it's also a book for young children and the people who can connect with it's themes are now all to old for that.
Instead of being read it can be appreciated. It's the opposite of a timeless classic. Jane Austen ties small things to big ideas whereas here Pterry tied big ideas to small things. A game, an advertising slogan and small not very-smart 13 year olds head. "I'm the one who kind of hangs around and no-one notices much" "Who? I didn't see anyone?" "Right that was me!"
And we've these things he shows us how turn reality into a game, how we can go to war so cruelly and still feed the other sides prisoners.
And that's pretty cool.