Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger — the co-editor of Boing Boing and the author of the YA graphic novel In Real Life, the nonfiction business book Information Doesn’t Want To Be Free, and young adult novels like Homeland, Pirate Cinema, and Little Brother and novels for adults like Rapture Of The Nerds and Makers. He is a Fellow for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. Born in Toronto, Canada, he now lives in Los Angeles.
An engaging read that effectively captures the immersive energy of MMO gaming in a way that reminded me of the first season of Sword Art Online (haven't read the manga).
This story obviously presents a moral dilemma, although to say it's heavy-handed is going a bit far. It's a totally legitimate topic for a youth-oriented story and a legitimate introduction to something about which many people probably weren't aware of and likely still haven't given much thought.
The underlying concept of the story brings to light a certain reality: the existence of what amounts to in-game slave labor performed by real people being exploited in real life. All just so gamers with money to burn can skip ahead quicker, violating many other gamers' sense of fairness about the work that they themselves have put into advancing without cheating.
The story itself explores the experience of stumbling upon this reality as a young person from a developed country. Anda finds herself inadvertently involved with this underground black market as a mercenary and has to confront what it means for herself, her team, and the game. Some things do open your eyes in unexpected ways.
In the current era of gaming, which shows no signs of slowing down, this topic is likely to remain evergreen at least in gamer circles. And the fact is that this story is a solid first treatment of it.