Review
[book]
[email protected]
[author]
Arne Tangherlini
[genre]
sci-fi, gaming fiction
[overview]
Alice in Wonderland meets Dante's The Inferno
[rating]
diamond
[review]
Leo plays a game called Aperion. When she meets an odd npc monk called Fra Umberto, her real adventure begins. With Fra Umberto's help she enters Dløn. A backwards virtual world where nothing is as it seems. At first, she's looking for her friend Bri. But with giant barbie monsters with pteradactyl wings, toilet-dwelling man-eating rats, rivers of poo, talking paisley-patterened plants, kid-smashing Zamboni, disco vikings and cult-like clown schools in her way, not even finding Bri is what she thought it was.
While it's not the best book I've ever read...
it's definitely worth checking out. It goes ridiculous to scary to sad in a few pages. The heroine, Leo, seems genuine and real, playing the role of that sheltered self-assured genius we've all known at some point. She has insecurities and strengths, and real-sounding dialog and thoughts. In short, Leo is a very believable character. The book itself mostly reminds me of Dante Alighieri's the Inferno more than anything. With Fra Umberto playing Leo's Virgil. The different situations leo finds herself in are odd and seemingly meaningless at the time, and more often than not, meaningless at the end, too. It's a fun book, quirky and odd, with folklore thrown in from all over. Not quite heart-quality but a high diamond.
