Rounded With Sleep

by Rob Chilson

Andy Thatcher strides the Earth in a series of godlike bodies, slaying demons and saving nymphets in the computerized plot of a fantasy-role game that has taken over the world. Suddenly Andy's heroes don't want to play, and Andy must wake up, grow up, and face reality, his ultimate enemy.

Genres: Science Fiction

193 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

I was born at home in Oklahoma, after my mother spent part of the morning hoeing in the garden. It was a pretty old-fashioned family even for that time (1945) and place. My father was a scarecrow. We subsequently moved to California, where my memories begin. I remember the first flake of snow I ever saw. (It disappeared before I got a good look at it.) Since then I've lost track of snowflakes; we moved back to Missouri (my mother's natal state) when I was eight, and I have been a confirmed Midwesterner ever since.

I decided, about age six, that I wanted to be a writer. I even wrote a couple of stories. I concluded that I was not yet ready to be a writer, so postponed it until I was grown up. At age eleven, I concluded that I now knew enough to be a writer; for instance, I now understood improper fractions. I knew, of course, that I would rarely have occasion to mention improper fractions in my stories, but I argued that my knowledge of them indicated that I had acquired a great deal of other knowledge which I could use. A sophisticated argument for an eleven-year-old. (To this day I have never mentioned improper fractions in a story.)

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rounded With Sleep is a fun gamer novel, written before such books became ubiquitous. As the back cover summary explains, Andy Thatcher is faced with the questions: "What happens to a dream when it's time to wake up? What happens to a hero when it's time to grow up?" I hesitate to call it a coming-of-age story because Andy's been locked in for over a century, but it's a fun and thought-provoking story.

[Angus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly thoughtful story about a lifelong gamer in a real-world game. Saying much more would spoil it, but I'm really glad to have read this again.

[STU · Rating 2 out of 5]

Randomly grabbed this book from thousands on my shelves.
Recognised the cover and realised I've already read it at some point.
Cannot remember much of it, so classify it as not memorable and writing a short review for my own classification benefit.

[Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A weird version of utopia tale. It has entertaining moments and a decent storyline.