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Soda Pop Soldier #1
Soda Pop Soldier
Call of Duty meets Diablo in this fast-paced, action-packed novel from the author of The Wasteland Saga.
Gamer PerfectQuestion fights for ColaCorp in WarWorld, an online combat sport arena where mega-corporations field entire armies in the battle for real world global advertising-space dominance. Within the immense virtual battlefield, players and bots are high-tech grunts, using drop-ships and state-of-the-art assault rifles to attack the enemy. But times are tough and the rent is due, and when players need extra dough, there's always the Black, an illegal open source tournament where the sick and twisted desires of the future are given free rein in The Westhavens, a gothic dungeon fantasy world.
Gamer PerfectQuestion fights for ColaCorp in WarWorld, an online combat sport arena where mega-corporations field entire armies in the battle for real world global advertising-space dominance. Within the immense virtual battlefield, players and bots are high-tech grunts, using drop-ships and state-of-the-art assault rifles to attack the enemy. But times are tough and the rent is due, and when players need extra dough, there's always the Black, an illegal open source tournament where the sick and twisted desires of the future are given free rein in The Westhavens, a gothic dungeon fantasy world.
And all too soon, the real and virtual worlds collide when PerfectQuestion refuses to become the tool of a mad man intent on hacking the global economy for himself.
367 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 12, 2014
133 people are currently reading
603 people want to read
About the author
Nick Cole
183 books622 followersNick Cole is a working actor living in Southern California. When he is not auditioning for commercials, going out for sitcoms or being shot, kicked, stabbed or beaten by the students of various film schools for their projects, he can often be found as a guard for King Phillip the Second of Spain in the Opera Don Carlo at Los Angeles Opera or some similar role. Nick Cole has been writing for most of his life and acting in Hollywood after serving in the U.S. Army.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 121 reviews
February 5, 2019
More like 3.5 rounded up.
Let me preface this by saying I am in no way shape or form a video game player. I think the last game I played was the original NES Mario Golf in the early 1990s where I had to blow into the cartridge in order to get it to work. That being said this was still fun and had a lot going on but it did become somewhat repetitive in parts and some of the references probably went over my head without me ever knowing they were there. I did love the ones I did get though, and having the Colonial Marines from Aliens show up scored some major cool points from me. Enough of an underlying mystery to keep me going and guessing as to what's up and I'll admit to being pleasantly surprised at some of the reveals. This was also more mature and adult orientated than I anticipated when I bought it and I don't think the cover blurb does it any service in terms of it being more than a book about a guy who plays video games. Overall a good way to spend a few bucks and a couple of days.
Let me preface this by saying I am in no way shape or form a video game player. I think the last game I played was the original NES Mario Golf in the early 1990s where I had to blow into the cartridge in order to get it to work. That being said this was still fun and had a lot going on but it did become somewhat repetitive in parts and some of the references probably went over my head without me ever knowing they were there. I did love the ones I did get though, and having the Colonial Marines from Aliens show up scored some major cool points from me. Enough of an underlying mystery to keep me going and guessing as to what's up and I'll admit to being pleasantly surprised at some of the reveals. This was also more mature and adult orientated than I anticipated when I bought it and I don't think the cover blurb does it any service in terms of it being more than a book about a guy who plays video games. Overall a good way to spend a few bucks and a couple of days.
October 9, 2015
First off, I love me some Nick Cole. When I heard he wrote a novel similar to RPO, I was on it like white on rice, peanut butter on jelly...Like duck fat on french fries. You get the point. Cole can write, this is just a known fact. He creates worlds that you will fall in love with, characters you will laugh and cry with and plots with just enough twists and turns that will keep you coming back for more.
SPS is a Call of Duty/MMORPG/Puzzle game (I believe the new coined term is MMOPUNK) that has, by sheer talent, been turned into a novel. AND IT IS AWESOME. But don't be fooled by that. There is a story here. One of loss and triumph; a professional gamer at the end of his rope must find a way to win back the one he loves. But in order to do just that, he will have to save himself. He will have to venture into the Black, an underground and illegal gaming community where you can live out your darkest fantasies and desires. He will have to lead his ColaCorp comrades to a victory in their final battle, one that will decide the fate of the company and their livelihoods. But that is only in the gaming world. In reality, he is being chased by a maniac who will stop at nothing to see Wondersoft, ColaCorp's opposition, rise to the top of the advertising plateau.
Like I said, I love Cole's work and SPS is probably my favorite one to date. There are similarities to RPO, but this one stands on its own as a new edition to the MMOPUNK/Gaming genre. Cannot WAIT for the prequel, Control Alt Revolt, which should be coming out pretty soon!
SPS is a Call of Duty/MMORPG/Puzzle game (I believe the new coined term is MMOPUNK) that has, by sheer talent, been turned into a novel. AND IT IS AWESOME. But don't be fooled by that. There is a story here. One of loss and triumph; a professional gamer at the end of his rope must find a way to win back the one he loves. But in order to do just that, he will have to save himself. He will have to venture into the Black, an underground and illegal gaming community where you can live out your darkest fantasies and desires. He will have to lead his ColaCorp comrades to a victory in their final battle, one that will decide the fate of the company and their livelihoods. But that is only in the gaming world. In reality, he is being chased by a maniac who will stop at nothing to see Wondersoft, ColaCorp's opposition, rise to the top of the advertising plateau.
Like I said, I love Cole's work and SPS is probably my favorite one to date. There are similarities to RPO, but this one stands on its own as a new edition to the MMOPUNK/Gaming genre. Cannot WAIT for the prequel, Control Alt Revolt, which should be coming out pretty soon!
October 12, 2014
An enjoyable quick read, although not terribly original (Snowcrash, Ready Player One and others have covered similar ground before). Surprisingly different from (and much lighter than) Cole's previous The Old Man and the Wasteland (which I also enjoyed). Interestingly, that too was a somewhat derivative work (apocalyptic Old Man and the Sea crossed with A Canticle for Leibowitz). I liked them both, but am curious to see if Cole's next work might be something that doesn't immediately make me describe it by reference to other prior works.
January 9, 2015
Soda Pop Soldier essentially takes the e-sports concept (DOTA 2, Starcraft, etc.) that offers the promise of making buckets of money by playing video games to talented gamers, and mixes it up with a heavy dose of corporatization (well, a heavier dose than it already has) and a heaping serving of teenage boy wish fulfillment.
Read the entire review on my site Far Beyond Reality!
Read the entire review on my site Far Beyond Reality!
September 4, 2015
Occasionally getting free books in return for an honest review feels like taking candy from a baby. For example: I received an eARC of this book from Harper Voyager as a member of their Super Reader program so that I could give said honest review. (yeah, it's pretty sweet.)
I'm obviously the target market for this book, as I connected with it on multiple levels. I'm a big fan of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series (not so much the Black Ops) and am currently ranking my way up the Hardcore ladder on COD: Ghosts. I've had my fair share of crappy relationships go sour, I've struggled to pay bills, and I've been chased around the globe by a megalomaniacal killer while trying to win an underground gaming tournament.
Okay, maybe not that last one... ;)
Nick Cole surprised me, as his other novel that I reviewed was absolutely nothing like this one. It was gritty, grim and almost without humor (but still good, don't get me wrong). This one read more like a (somewhat) darker and more adult version of Ernest Cline's "Ready Player One" (which I also highly enjoyed). The world building (satellite cities, off-world colonization) leaves me wanting much, much more, and the ending of the novel leaves the door open for just that possibility.
Go ahead, Mr. Cole, kick that door wide and show us what you've got in store for PerfectQuestion. I'll be waiting!
I'm obviously the target market for this book, as I connected with it on multiple levels. I'm a big fan of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series (not so much the Black Ops) and am currently ranking my way up the Hardcore ladder on COD: Ghosts. I've had my fair share of crappy relationships go sour, I've struggled to pay bills, and I've been chased around the globe by a megalomaniacal killer while trying to win an underground gaming tournament.
Okay, maybe not that last one... ;)
Nick Cole surprised me, as his other novel that I reviewed was absolutely nothing like this one. It was gritty, grim and almost without humor (but still good, don't get me wrong). This one read more like a (somewhat) darker and more adult version of Ernest Cline's "Ready Player One" (which I also highly enjoyed). The world building (satellite cities, off-world colonization) leaves me wanting much, much more, and the ending of the novel leaves the door open for just that possibility.
Go ahead, Mr. Cole, kick that door wide and show us what you've got in store for PerfectQuestion. I'll be waiting!
February 20, 2016
Wow. This was incredibly exciting, and it almost felt like reading 2 stories in one as our hero moves from war to Black and back again. He's no saint, is our PerfectQuestion, but it's evident from the off that Cole's not painted his trigger-happy hero as a dumb jock. The literary, historical and philosophical references alone are enough to raise this novel from the depths of small-time publishing into the big league, but the frenetic pacing, sheer picture-perfect combat and deliciously appropriate counterpoints in the Black are enough to keep it high. Then there's the gaming, television and film trivia, which is probably what's drawn everyone's eyes to the Erny Cline comparisons (which are unfair, but hold a tenuous logic). This book *was* really like living in one of those high-octane team war SIMs whilst trying not to die for real, so huge points for that. Bring on more!
November 15, 2014
Great book, but I am not sure about the Diablo reference in the reviews. I'd say more World of Warcraft.
I liked this story I would love to know more of the back story.
I enjoyed this story and I hope that Nick will write more in this universe.
I liked this story I would love to know more of the back story.
I enjoyed this story and I hope that Nick will write more in this universe.
July 14, 2019
SODA POP SOLIDER by Nick Cole is an extremely entertaining cyberpunk novel that is set in the near future where Call of Duty-esque virtual reality games are a billion dollar industry. Perfect Question is the online tag of our middle-class hero who is living month-to-month after a losing streak removes his bonuses with the company he works for being about to go bankrupt. To pay the bills, he agrees to do a number of illegal games that cross the moral boundaries of his harsh environment where real people are killed. There's a lot of fun pop culture references from the nostalgia levels and really interesting commentary by PerfectQuestion on their strange corporate/video game/advertisement obsessed world. I think both gamers as well as fans of dystopian scfi will enjoy this novel.
9/10
9/10
October 24, 2019
Ethical professional MMOG player in a dystopian future becomes involved in game-related meatspace conspiracies.
TL;DR Synopsis
5-year old written dystopian mashup of Snow Crash (1992) and Ready Player One (2012). There was an overall incomplete Neill Blomkamp look ‘n feel to the world building. In a world where MMOGs were used to resolve corporate conflict a young, up-and-coming gamer becomes involved in two different game conspiracies one professional and the other illegal and deplorable creating an existential threat. The main character was a slacker who grows through the pressure of the threat. Narrative contains a lot of in-game running and gunning (MILsim) and hack and slash (S&S) action. Out-of-game action was not much different, with obvious tropes in-play. The author has a fetish for food descriptions, good movie knowledge, and 70’s thru 90’s music knowledge. Story was a workmanlike effort, that’s amusing in places but inconsistently so. Unfortunately, there were several major inconsistencies in the story line. Mainly, in the end, the antagonists vanish. Interesting only to folks with some gaming background.
REVIEW
My dead tree copy was a moderate 360-pages with an original US 2014 copyright. I read the whole book in two days of enforced idleness.
Nick Cole is an American author of science fiction. He’s written more than 10 books in several series. This was the first book in his Soda Pop Soldier series. It’s also the first book of the author’s that I’ve read.
Cole is a journeyman writer. Narrative was generally humorous, with the first half of the book being funnier to me than the second. Wordsmith-wise he’s either good, or has the services of a good proofreader. I did note two (2) consistency errors. There were occasional gaming technical vocabulary errors. Descriptive prose was better than dialog. Action scenes were well choreographed within the OTT writing style. His overall plotting was offbeat, which kept me reading. This story had several wacky characters and a pair of bizarre crimes at heart. This lead me to believe this was a parody of the virtual gaming genre. There were also some very well-done scenes. However, he was inconsistent in the performance of Lampshade Hanging despite the underlying humor. The author had difficulties with taking the story too seriously at points for it to be a parody. There was a single POV throughout.
There was sex, modest substance abuse and music references in the book. Non-heteronormative and deviant sex was included the plot. However, there were no graphic descriptions of sexual acts. (Cole took the easy way out.) In places sexual situations were written about humorously. Substance abuse was mostly alcohol usage. The initially poor protagonist spent a lot of his own money on expensive hooch. Note the protagonist also smoked cigarettes, which likewise must have been more expensive than vaping (unmentioned) in the future. Pharmaceuticals were abused for an interrogation. The protagonist has a good dialog about music within games and as a suitable background for them. Much of the music mentioned was 90’s and earlier. I went back and listened to some old Catherine Wheel as a result.
Violence was physical, edged weapons, and firearms. The story included scenes of torture. The torture scenes were not graphic. Physical trauma was modestly graphic, with blood, and gore. This is on par with the mature-rated MilSims and S&S scenes that make-up the majority of violent scenes. Body count was modest. I frankly don't recall anyone being killed in meatspace. NPC and virtual player body count was extinction-level.
The protagonist was PerfectQuestion. His meatspace name may have been John Saxon, but that was unclear to me as part of the cyber-anonymity plot element. He provided the story’s POV and was the most developed character. He’s a talented, professional gamer, working on contract to a major corporation. He's unable to make ends meet on salary and commission. He was a strange mashup of: slacker, working poor and gaming geek tropes. None of these pieces fit properly enough for me.
In meatspace, PerfectQuestion initially has a live-in GF named Sancerre. (This was the first signal of ironic humor.) There’s no reason or explanation for them to be together, other than for her to dump him in a perfectly valid value proposition. On-line there were additional characters. Note that PerfectQuestion has a richer social life on-line than in the real world. On-line characters were quirkily interesting. There’s Kiwi who happens to be Australian (and not a Kiwi). He’s the Tank in PerfectQuestion's MilSim team. JollyBoy who was a rambling Sociopath was the team's gaming berserker when unleashed against the enemy. There were also RiotGuurl the team's Ace Pilot and AwesomeSauce a Military Moe for female interests. None of these supporting characters gets more than trope-level development.
The main antagonist was Faustus Mercator. He’s a money-worshiping psychopath. (Note the JollyBoy/Mercator juxtaposition.) Mercator was manipulating a financial market at great effort and expense. He identifies PerfectQuestion as a vulnerable key player[sic] in cornering the market. He tries to play nice, but dirty was more his style. A shadowy, likely criminal figure associated with the Mob also lurks ‘out there’.
The story begins with PerfectQuestion’s life tanking. He’s contracted to ColaCorp (Coca Cola) which was locked in corporate advertising conflict with WonderSoft (MicroSoft). The conflict was being mediated and monetized through a MilSim providing popular entertainment. He’s a contract, commanding player on the ColaCorp side, which was losing due to Mercator’s secret intervention. Being on the losing side, he’s skint. To make rent and keep his beautiful GF in a way she surely isn’t accustomed even at its best he breaks the law. He has skillz. He uses what rent money he has accumulated to stake himself in an illegal and in breach of employment contract Darknet S&S that pays large cash prizes. This game was a known criminal enterprise. Despite his abilities, things don’t go well. Mercator becomes impatient with his engineered rate of ColaCorp’s defeat. PerfectQuestion was an unexpected impediment. Mercator goes after PerfectQuestion in both the games and in meatspace. That’s when Sancerre decants herself. Serendipity strikes. PerfectQuestion finds the secret to Mercator’s success and also how to permanently shut down the depraved Darknet S&S (after he gets his winnings out). Can he stay alive long enough in all three worlds to accomplish this?
World building was OK-- but there were large consistency problems. Cole’s dystopian future was a mishmash of the genre from books and movies without enough glue. If I had to guess Cole was a fan of Neill Blomkamp. The rich folk were living on Elysium(s) while the disenfranchised and working poor (like PerfectQuestion) live in District 9(s). However, the described world was not internally consistent. Despite having interstellar travel and colonies throughout the solar system the tech, social and political structure on earth wasn’t much more advanced than 2020. Cole could have saved a lot of handwaving and credibility by telling a smaller, more contemporary with essentially the same major plot elements taking place in New York City, the original center of action.
The gaming descriptions were OK. The S&S game narrative was better than the MilSim, although I’ve played more MilSims than the other. In the MilSim, PerfectQuestion was running and gunning which was more akin to basketball than warfare. By his own admission:
PerfectQuestions consuming cigarettes and scotch while competing live in action games for his livelihood is not a winner's strategy. A player of PerfectQuestions described caliber is an athlete.
This was a quick read, and not a great work. Cole had a good story, clever writing and humour, some of it self-deprecating. I thought this was going to be successful parody of Ready Player One. There was a lot of gamer edutainment action. However, he failed in his: world building, keeping the parody aloft, and by not ending his two major game-based plotlines properly. Cole posited a Bladerunner-esque future with interstellar travel and then wrote a story that takes place without that future. He could have better written the story to take place in 2020 with few changes and it would have been less hackneyed. The weird and wacky of the parody was inconstant. The narrative took the story too seriously at inopportune times. His story also didn’t end. At the end of the games, one bad guy gets away unpunished. Another bunch of unnamed bad guys have every reason to go punish PerfectQuestion in meatspace real soon now. (Mercator found PerfectQuestion in meatspace, then the Mob can follow the breadcrumbs back to a public figure too.) Finally, at the end of the story PerfectQuestion has a tidy sum of untraceable cash, a fat commission check and a likely employment contract extension. It’s not enough to buy a car dealership to retire on when carpel tunnel cripples his mousing fingers and scotch erodes his twitch reflexes. And he doesn’t even have any girl.
Having read this, I will not be reading the next story in the series Pop Kult Warlord . Readers interested in a better gaming-based book should try the previously mentioned Ready Player One or Bedlam (my review).
TL;DR Synopsis
5-year old written dystopian mashup of Snow Crash (1992) and Ready Player One (2012). There was an overall incomplete Neill Blomkamp look ‘n feel to the world building. In a world where MMOGs were used to resolve corporate conflict a young, up-and-coming gamer becomes involved in two different game conspiracies one professional and the other illegal and deplorable creating an existential threat. The main character was a slacker who grows through the pressure of the threat. Narrative contains a lot of in-game running and gunning (MILsim) and hack and slash (S&S) action. Out-of-game action was not much different, with obvious tropes in-play. The author has a fetish for food descriptions, good movie knowledge, and 70’s thru 90’s music knowledge. Story was a workmanlike effort, that’s amusing in places but inconsistently so. Unfortunately, there were several major inconsistencies in the story line. Mainly, in the end, the antagonists vanish. Interesting only to folks with some gaming background.
REVIEW
My dead tree copy was a moderate 360-pages with an original US 2014 copyright. I read the whole book in two days of enforced idleness.
Nick Cole is an American author of science fiction. He’s written more than 10 books in several series. This was the first book in his Soda Pop Soldier series. It’s also the first book of the author’s that I’ve read.
Cole is a journeyman writer. Narrative was generally humorous, with the first half of the book being funnier to me than the second. Wordsmith-wise he’s either good, or has the services of a good proofreader. I did note two (2) consistency errors. There were occasional gaming technical vocabulary errors. Descriptive prose was better than dialog. Action scenes were well choreographed within the OTT writing style. His overall plotting was offbeat, which kept me reading. This story had several wacky characters and a pair of bizarre crimes at heart. This lead me to believe this was a parody of the virtual gaming genre. There were also some very well-done scenes. However, he was inconsistent in the performance of Lampshade Hanging despite the underlying humor. The author had difficulties with taking the story too seriously at points for it to be a parody. There was a single POV throughout.
There was sex, modest substance abuse and music references in the book. Non-heteronormative and deviant sex was included the plot. However, there were no graphic descriptions of sexual acts. (Cole took the easy way out.) In places sexual situations were written about humorously. Substance abuse was mostly alcohol usage. The initially poor protagonist spent a lot of his own money on expensive hooch. Note the protagonist also smoked cigarettes, which likewise must have been more expensive than vaping (unmentioned) in the future. Pharmaceuticals were abused for an interrogation. The protagonist has a good dialog about music within games and as a suitable background for them. Much of the music mentioned was 90’s and earlier. I went back and listened to some old Catherine Wheel as a result.
Violence was physical, edged weapons, and firearms. The story included scenes of torture. The torture scenes were not graphic. Physical trauma was modestly graphic, with blood, and gore. This is on par with the mature-rated MilSims and S&S scenes that make-up the majority of violent scenes. Body count was modest. I frankly don't recall anyone being killed in meatspace. NPC and virtual player body count was extinction-level.
The protagonist was PerfectQuestion. His meatspace name may have been John Saxon, but that was unclear to me as part of the cyber-anonymity plot element. He provided the story’s POV and was the most developed character. He’s a talented, professional gamer, working on contract to a major corporation. He's unable to make ends meet on salary and commission. He was a strange mashup of: slacker, working poor and gaming geek tropes. None of these pieces fit properly enough for me.
In meatspace, PerfectQuestion initially has a live-in GF named Sancerre. (This was the first signal of ironic humor.) There’s no reason or explanation for them to be together, other than for her to dump him in a perfectly valid value proposition. On-line there were additional characters. Note that PerfectQuestion has a richer social life on-line than in the real world. On-line characters were quirkily interesting. There’s Kiwi who happens to be Australian (and not a Kiwi). He’s the Tank in PerfectQuestion's MilSim team. JollyBoy who was a rambling Sociopath was the team's gaming berserker when unleashed against the enemy. There were also RiotGuurl the team's Ace Pilot and AwesomeSauce a Military Moe for female interests. None of these supporting characters gets more than trope-level development.
The main antagonist was Faustus Mercator. He’s a money-worshiping psychopath. (Note the JollyBoy/Mercator juxtaposition.) Mercator was manipulating a financial market at great effort and expense. He identifies PerfectQuestion as a vulnerable key player[sic] in cornering the market. He tries to play nice, but dirty was more his style. A shadowy, likely criminal figure associated with the Mob also lurks ‘out there’.
The story begins with PerfectQuestion’s life tanking. He’s contracted to ColaCorp (Coca Cola) which was locked in corporate advertising conflict with WonderSoft (MicroSoft). The conflict was being mediated and monetized through a MilSim providing popular entertainment. He’s a contract, commanding player on the ColaCorp side, which was losing due to Mercator’s secret intervention. Being on the losing side, he’s skint. To make rent and keep his beautiful GF in a way she surely isn’t accustomed even at its best he breaks the law. He has skillz. He uses what rent money he has accumulated to stake himself in an illegal and in breach of employment contract Darknet S&S that pays large cash prizes. This game was a known criminal enterprise. Despite his abilities, things don’t go well. Mercator becomes impatient with his engineered rate of ColaCorp’s defeat. PerfectQuestion was an unexpected impediment. Mercator goes after PerfectQuestion in both the games and in meatspace. That’s when Sancerre decants herself. Serendipity strikes. PerfectQuestion finds the secret to Mercator’s success and also how to permanently shut down the depraved Darknet S&S (after he gets his winnings out). Can he stay alive long enough in all three worlds to accomplish this?
World building was OK-- but there were large consistency problems. Cole’s dystopian future was a mishmash of the genre from books and movies without enough glue. If I had to guess Cole was a fan of Neill Blomkamp. The rich folk were living on Elysium(s) while the disenfranchised and working poor (like PerfectQuestion) live in District 9(s). However, the described world was not internally consistent. Despite having interstellar travel and colonies throughout the solar system the tech, social and political structure on earth wasn’t much more advanced than 2020. Cole could have saved a lot of handwaving and credibility by telling a smaller, more contemporary with essentially the same major plot elements taking place in New York City, the original center of action.
The gaming descriptions were OK. The S&S game narrative was better than the MilSim, although I’ve played more MilSims than the other. In the MilSim, PerfectQuestion was running and gunning which was more akin to basketball than warfare. By his own admission:
I sketch the layout of the apartment for the TAC Commander on his command pad. I note all the danger zones for him. He seems grateful for the info. Or he thinks I’m a wannnabe-hardcore-soldier-gamer fanboy. Which I am.
PerfectQuestions consuming cigarettes and scotch while competing live in action games for his livelihood is not a winner's strategy. A player of PerfectQuestions described caliber is an athlete.
This was a quick read, and not a great work. Cole had a good story, clever writing and humour, some of it self-deprecating. I thought this was going to be successful parody of Ready Player One. There was a lot of gamer edutainment action. However, he failed in his: world building, keeping the parody aloft, and by not ending his two major game-based plotlines properly. Cole posited a Bladerunner-esque future with interstellar travel and then wrote a story that takes place without that future. He could have better written the story to take place in 2020 with few changes and it would have been less hackneyed. The weird and wacky of the parody was inconstant. The narrative took the story too seriously at inopportune times. His story also didn’t end. At the end of the games, one bad guy gets away unpunished. Another bunch of unnamed bad guys have every reason to go punish PerfectQuestion in meatspace real soon now. (Mercator found PerfectQuestion in meatspace, then the Mob can follow the breadcrumbs back to a public figure too.) Finally, at the end of the story PerfectQuestion has a tidy sum of untraceable cash, a fat commission check and a likely employment contract extension. It’s not enough to buy a car dealership to retire on when carpel tunnel cripples his mousing fingers and scotch erodes his twitch reflexes. And he doesn’t even have any girl.
Having read this, I will not be reading the next story in the series Pop Kult Warlord . Readers interested in a better gaming-based book should try the previously mentioned Ready Player One or Bedlam (my review).
October 24, 2019
Ethical professional MMOG player in a dystopian future becomes involved in game-related meatspace conspiracies.
TL;DR Synopsis
5-year old written dystopian mashup of Snow Crash (1992) and Ready Player One (2012). There was an overall incomplete Neill Blomkamp look ‘n feel to the world building. In a world where MMOGs were used to resolve corporate conflict a young, up-and-coming gamer becomes involved in two different game conspiracies one professional and the other illegal and deplorable creating an existential threat. The main character was a slacker who grows through the pressure of the threat. Narrative contains a lot of in-game running and gunning (MILsim) and hack and slash (S&S) action. Out-of-game action was not much different, with obvious tropes in-play. The author has a fetish for food descriptions, good movie knowledge, and 70’s thru 90’s music knowledge. Story was a workmanlike effort, that’s amusing in places but inconsistently so. Unfortunately, there were several major inconsistencies in the story line. Mainly, in the end, the antagonists vanish. Interesting only to folks with some gaming background.
REVIEW
My dead tree copy was a moderate 360-pages with an original US 2014 copyright. I read the whole book in two days of enforced idleness.
Nick Cole is an American author of science fiction. He’s written more than 10 books in several series. This was the first book in his Soda Pop Soldier series. It’s also the first book of the author’s that I’ve read.
Cole is a journeyman writer. Narrative was generally humorous, with the first half of the book being funnier to me than the second. Wordsmith-wise he’s either good, or has the services of a good proofreader. I did note two (2) consistency errors. There were occasional gaming technical vocabulary errors. Descriptive prose was better than dialog. Action scenes were well choreographed within the OTT writing style. His overall plotting was offbeat, which kept me reading. This story had several wacky characters and a pair of bizarre crimes at heart. This lead me to believe this was a parody of the virtual gaming genre. There were also some very well-done scenes. However, he was inconsistent in the performance of Lampshade Hanging despite the underlying humor. The author had difficulties with taking the story too seriously at points for it to be a parody. There was a single POV throughout.
There was sex, modest substance abuse and music references in the book. Non-heteronormative and deviant sex was included the plot. However, there were no graphic descriptions of sexual acts. (Cole took the easy way out.) In places sexual situations were written about humorously. Substance abuse was mostly alcohol usage. The initially poor protagonist spent a lot of his own money on expensive hooch. Note the protagonist also smoked cigarettes, which likewise must have been more expensive than vaping (unmentioned) in the future. Pharmaceuticals were abused for an interrogation. The protagonist has a good dialog about music within games and as a suitable background for them. Much of the music mentioned was 90’s and earlier. I went back and listened to some old Catherine Wheel as a result.
Violence was physical, edged weapons, and firearms. The story included scenes of torture. The torture scenes were not graphic. Physical trauma was modestly graphic, with blood, and gore. This is on par with the mature-rated MilSims and S&S scenes that make-up the majority of violent scenes. Body count was modest. I frankly don't recall anyone being killed in meatspace. NPC and virtual player body count was extinction-level.
The protagonist was PerfectQuestion. His meatspace name may have been John Saxon, but that was unclear to me as part of the cyber-anonymity plot element. He provided the story’s POV and was the most developed character. He’s a talented, professional gamer, working on contract to a major corporation. He's unable to make ends meet on salary and commission. He was a strange mashup of: slacker, working poor and gaming geek tropes. None of these pieces fit properly enough for me.
In meatspace, PerfectQuestion initially has a live-in GF named Sancerre. (This was the first signal of ironic humor.) There’s no reason or explanation for them to be together, other than for her to dump him in a perfectly valid value proposition. On-line there were additional characters. Note that PerfectQuestion has a richer social life on-line than in the real world. On-line characters were quirkily interesting. There’s Kiwi who happens to be Australian (and not a Kiwi). He’s the Tank in PerfectQuestion's MilSim team. JollyBoy who was a rambling Sociopath was the team's gaming berserker when unleashed against the enemy. There were also RiotGuurl the team's Ace Pilot and AwesomeSauce a Military Moe for female interests. None of these supporting characters gets more than trope-level development.
The main antagonist was Faustus Mercator. He’s a money-worshiping psychopath. (Note the JollyBoy/Mercator juxtaposition.) Mercator was manipulating a financial market at great effort and expense. He identifies PerfectQuestion as a vulnerable key player[sic] in cornering the market. He tries to play nice, but dirty was more his style. A shadowy, likely criminal figure associated with the Mob also lurks ‘out there’.
The story begins with PerfectQuestion’s life tanking. He’s contracted to ColaCorp (Coca Cola) which was locked in corporate advertising conflict with WonderSoft (MicroSoft). The conflict was being mediated and monetized through a MilSim providing popular entertainment. He’s a contract, commanding player on the ColaCorp side, which was losing due to Mercator’s secret intervention. Being on the losing side, he’s skint. To make rent and keep his beautiful GF in a way she surely isn’t accustomed even at its best he breaks the law. He has skillz. He uses what rent money he has accumulated to stake himself in an illegal and in breach of employment contract Darknet S&S that pays large cash prizes. This game was a known criminal enterprise. Despite his abilities, things don’t go well. Mercator becomes impatient with his engineered rate of ColaCorp’s defeat. PerfectQuestion was an unexpected impediment. Mercator goes after PerfectQuestion in both the games and in meatspace. That’s when Sancerre decants herself. Serendipity strikes. PerfectQuestion finds the secret to Mercator’s success and also how to permanently shut down the depraved Darknet S&S (after he gets his winnings out). Can he stay alive long enough in all three worlds to accomplish this?
World building was OK-- but there were large consistency problems. Cole’s dystopian future was a mishmash of the genre from books and movies without enough glue. If I had to guess Cole was a fan of Neill Blomkamp. The rich folk were living on Elysium(s) while the disenfranchised and working poor (like PerfectQuestion) live in District 9(s). However, the described world was not internally consistent. Despite having interstellar travel and colonies throughout the solar system the tech, social and political structure on earth wasn’t much more advanced than 2020. Cole could have saved a lot of handwaving and credibility by telling a smaller, more contemporary with essentially the same major plot elements taking place in New York City, the original center of action.
The gaming descriptions were OK. The S&S game narrative was better than the MilSim, although I’ve played more MilSims than the other. In the MilSim, PerfectQuestion was running and gunning which was more akin to basketball than warfare. By his own admission:
PerfectQuestions consuming cigarettes and scotch while competing live in action games for his livelihood is not a winner's strategy. A player of PerfectQuestions described caliber is an athlete.
This was a quick read, and not a great work. Cole had a good story, clever writing and humour, some of it self-deprecating. I thought this was going to be successful parody of Ready Player One. There was a lot of gamer edutainment action. However, he failed in his: world building, keeping the parody aloft, and by not ending his two major game-based plotlines properly. Cole posited a Bladerunner-esque future with interstellar travel and then wrote a story that takes place without that future. He could have better written the story to take place in 2020 with few changes and it would have been less hackneyed. The weird and wacky of the parody was inconstant. The narrative took the story too seriously at inopportune times. His story also didn’t end. At the end of the games, one bad guy gets away unpunished. Another bunch of unnamed bad guys have every reason to go punish PerfectQuestion in meatspace real soon now. (Mercator found PerfectQuestion in meatspace, then the Mob can follow the breadcrumbs back to a public figure too.) Finally, at the end of the story PerfectQuestion has a tidy sum of untraceable cash, a fat commission check and a likely employment contract extension. It’s not enough to buy a car dealership to retire on when carpel tunnel cripples his mousing fingers and scotch erodes his twitch reflexes. And he doesn’t even have any girl.
Having read this, I will not be reading the next story in the series Pop Kult Warlord . Readers interested in a better gaming-based book should try the previously mentioned Ready Player One or Bedlam (my review).
TL;DR Synopsis
5-year old written dystopian mashup of Snow Crash (1992) and Ready Player One (2012). There was an overall incomplete Neill Blomkamp look ‘n feel to the world building. In a world where MMOGs were used to resolve corporate conflict a young, up-and-coming gamer becomes involved in two different game conspiracies one professional and the other illegal and deplorable creating an existential threat. The main character was a slacker who grows through the pressure of the threat. Narrative contains a lot of in-game running and gunning (MILsim) and hack and slash (S&S) action. Out-of-game action was not much different, with obvious tropes in-play. The author has a fetish for food descriptions, good movie knowledge, and 70’s thru 90’s music knowledge. Story was a workmanlike effort, that’s amusing in places but inconsistently so. Unfortunately, there were several major inconsistencies in the story line. Mainly, in the end, the antagonists vanish. Interesting only to folks with some gaming background.
REVIEW
My dead tree copy was a moderate 360-pages with an original US 2014 copyright. I read the whole book in two days of enforced idleness.
Nick Cole is an American author of science fiction. He’s written more than 10 books in several series. This was the first book in his Soda Pop Soldier series. It’s also the first book of the author’s that I’ve read.
Cole is a journeyman writer. Narrative was generally humorous, with the first half of the book being funnier to me than the second. Wordsmith-wise he’s either good, or has the services of a good proofreader. I did note two (2) consistency errors. There were occasional gaming technical vocabulary errors. Descriptive prose was better than dialog. Action scenes were well choreographed within the OTT writing style. His overall plotting was offbeat, which kept me reading. This story had several wacky characters and a pair of bizarre crimes at heart. This lead me to believe this was a parody of the virtual gaming genre. There were also some very well-done scenes. However, he was inconsistent in the performance of Lampshade Hanging despite the underlying humor. The author had difficulties with taking the story too seriously at points for it to be a parody. There was a single POV throughout.
There was sex, modest substance abuse and music references in the book. Non-heteronormative and deviant sex was included the plot. However, there were no graphic descriptions of sexual acts. (Cole took the easy way out.) In places sexual situations were written about humorously. Substance abuse was mostly alcohol usage. The initially poor protagonist spent a lot of his own money on expensive hooch. Note the protagonist also smoked cigarettes, which likewise must have been more expensive than vaping (unmentioned) in the future. Pharmaceuticals were abused for an interrogation. The protagonist has a good dialog about music within games and as a suitable background for them. Much of the music mentioned was 90’s and earlier. I went back and listened to some old Catherine Wheel as a result.
Violence was physical, edged weapons, and firearms. The story included scenes of torture. The torture scenes were not graphic. Physical trauma was modestly graphic, with blood, and gore. This is on par with the mature-rated MilSims and S&S scenes that make-up the majority of violent scenes. Body count was modest. I frankly don't recall anyone being killed in meatspace. NPC and virtual player body count was extinction-level.
The protagonist was PerfectQuestion. His meatspace name may have been John Saxon, but that was unclear to me as part of the cyber-anonymity plot element. He provided the story’s POV and was the most developed character. He’s a talented, professional gamer, working on contract to a major corporation. He's unable to make ends meet on salary and commission. He was a strange mashup of: slacker, working poor and gaming geek tropes. None of these pieces fit properly enough for me.
In meatspace, PerfectQuestion initially has a live-in GF named Sancerre. (This was the first signal of ironic humor.) There’s no reason or explanation for them to be together, other than for her to dump him in a perfectly valid value proposition. On-line there were additional characters. Note that PerfectQuestion has a richer social life on-line than in the real world. On-line characters were quirkily interesting. There’s Kiwi who happens to be Australian (and not a Kiwi). He’s the Tank in PerfectQuestion's MilSim team. JollyBoy who was a rambling Sociopath was the team's gaming berserker when unleashed against the enemy. There were also RiotGuurl the team's Ace Pilot and AwesomeSauce a Military Moe for female interests. None of these supporting characters gets more than trope-level development.
The main antagonist was Faustus Mercator. He’s a money-worshiping psychopath. (Note the JollyBoy/Mercator juxtaposition.) Mercator was manipulating a financial market at great effort and expense. He identifies PerfectQuestion as a vulnerable key player[sic] in cornering the market. He tries to play nice, but dirty was more his style. A shadowy, likely criminal figure associated with the Mob also lurks ‘out there’.
The story begins with PerfectQuestion’s life tanking. He’s contracted to ColaCorp (Coca Cola) which was locked in corporate advertising conflict with WonderSoft (MicroSoft). The conflict was being mediated and monetized through a MilSim providing popular entertainment. He’s a contract, commanding player on the ColaCorp side, which was losing due to Mercator’s secret intervention. Being on the losing side, he’s skint. To make rent and keep his beautiful GF in a way she surely isn’t accustomed even at its best he breaks the law. He has skillz. He uses what rent money he has accumulated to stake himself in an illegal and in breach of employment contract Darknet S&S that pays large cash prizes. This game was a known criminal enterprise. Despite his abilities, things don’t go well. Mercator becomes impatient with his engineered rate of ColaCorp’s defeat. PerfectQuestion was an unexpected impediment. Mercator goes after PerfectQuestion in both the games and in meatspace. That’s when Sancerre decants herself. Serendipity strikes. PerfectQuestion finds the secret to Mercator’s success and also how to permanently shut down the depraved Darknet S&S (after he gets his winnings out). Can he stay alive long enough in all three worlds to accomplish this?
World building was OK-- but there were large consistency problems. Cole’s dystopian future was a mishmash of the genre from books and movies without enough glue. If I had to guess Cole was a fan of Neill Blomkamp. The rich folk were living on Elysium(s) while the disenfranchised and working poor (like PerfectQuestion) live in District 9(s). However, the described world was not internally consistent. Despite having interstellar travel and colonies throughout the solar system the tech, social and political structure on earth wasn’t much more advanced than 2020. Cole could have saved a lot of handwaving and credibility by telling a smaller, more contemporary with essentially the same major plot elements taking place in New York City, the original center of action.
The gaming descriptions were OK. The S&S game narrative was better than the MilSim, although I’ve played more MilSims than the other. In the MilSim, PerfectQuestion was running and gunning which was more akin to basketball than warfare. By his own admission:
I sketch the layout of the apartment for the TAC Commander on his command pad. I note all the danger zones for him. He seems grateful for the info. Or he thinks I’m a wannnabe-hardcore-soldier-gamer fanboy. Which I am.
PerfectQuestions consuming cigarettes and scotch while competing live in action games for his livelihood is not a winner's strategy. A player of PerfectQuestions described caliber is an athlete.
This was a quick read, and not a great work. Cole had a good story, clever writing and humour, some of it self-deprecating. I thought this was going to be successful parody of Ready Player One. There was a lot of gamer edutainment action. However, he failed in his: world building, keeping the parody aloft, and by not ending his two major game-based plotlines properly. Cole posited a Bladerunner-esque future with interstellar travel and then wrote a story that takes place without that future. He could have better written the story to take place in 2020 with few changes and it would have been less hackneyed. The weird and wacky of the parody was inconstant. The narrative took the story too seriously at inopportune times. His story also didn’t end. At the end of the games, one bad guy gets away unpunished. Another bunch of unnamed bad guys have every reason to go punish PerfectQuestion in meatspace real soon now. (Mercator found PerfectQuestion in meatspace, then the Mob can follow the breadcrumbs back to a public figure too.) Finally, at the end of the story PerfectQuestion has a tidy sum of untraceable cash, a fat commission check and a likely employment contract extension. It’s not enough to buy a car dealership to retire on when carpel tunnel cripples his mousing fingers and scotch erodes his twitch reflexes. And he doesn’t even have any girl.
Having read this, I will not be reading the next story in the series Pop Kult Warlord . Readers interested in a better gaming-based book should try the previously mentioned Ready Player One or Bedlam (my review).
September 16, 2014
I like to read...
Sometimes to educate, sometimes to kill time, sometimes out of curiosity, but mostly I read for fun. I want Action, adventure, mystery and humor. Too many times books that rise to the top of the sci-fi community consciousness seem to be thinly veiled sermons about societies injustices, or 1000 page tomes dealing with astro-navigation and sometimes some average books that uses some ridiculous gimmick like pronoun replacement to make the masses ooh and ahh at the "original Genius" of the book...well Whatever, sometimes geeks just wanna have fun.
Soda Pop Soldier by Nick Cole was fun...(you saw that coming didn't you?). It's a sci-fi action book, with a touch of mystery. More to the point Its what you'd get if you blended Ready Player One with Call of Duty, and threw in a little Diablo and a touch of Gamer.
SYNOPSIS:
Corporations now hire gamers to battle other corporate entities for the rights to prime advertising space and the minds and wallets of consumers in a massive Call of Duty and Battlefield like game known as WarWorld. Gamer PerfectQuestion is walking into more than virtual bullets as his real life is in danger from people who have their own agenda. As if our protagonist didnt have enough issues his relationship and money issues force him into an illegal underground online game that has mysteries and dangers of it's own. And it is chock full of wonderful little geek surprises and references that had me grinning like a fool.
This book is perfect for Gamers, and pop culture Geeks as well as fans of Ready player one, Video game High school, Gamer, Aliens, FPS, MMOs and RPG's, action and adventure sci-fi, and weirdly foodies because about 3/4 of the way through the book I was having a Game of Thrones moment as I Realized how much Cole and Martin both love to add food to their books...better watch your waste line Mr Cole:)
One more benefit for me very personally with this book is that although it is not at all a YA book I love the fact that I can safely hand this to my 14 YO son (and my wife) without fear. Thank you Mr Cole for not feeling the need to throw random sex and vulgarity through the book so I can share this great book without apprehension, Do not stray away from that.
I want to give this 4 1/2 stars but no half stars are available and my personal issues shouldn't take away from wanting other to read this. I wasn't thrilled with the image of yet another gamer who smoked too much (and I prefer Evan Williams Honey to Scotch :)). Apparently Mr. Cole is a Seinfeld fan...Plllttttt :). Lastly I felt one of the major strings should have been resolved in a much bigger way it felt a little understated when I wanted explosive...But I hear from a reliable source that there could be Sequels (Hopefully so buy the damn book) so maybe that thread is still open.
Bottom line is it's a fun book and Ready Player One fans and Gamers of all types should enjoy this a great deal...now go ahead, go buy it.
Sometimes to educate, sometimes to kill time, sometimes out of curiosity, but mostly I read for fun. I want Action, adventure, mystery and humor. Too many times books that rise to the top of the sci-fi community consciousness seem to be thinly veiled sermons about societies injustices, or 1000 page tomes dealing with astro-navigation and sometimes some average books that uses some ridiculous gimmick like pronoun replacement to make the masses ooh and ahh at the "original Genius" of the book...well Whatever, sometimes geeks just wanna have fun.
Soda Pop Soldier by Nick Cole was fun...(you saw that coming didn't you?). It's a sci-fi action book, with a touch of mystery. More to the point Its what you'd get if you blended Ready Player One with Call of Duty, and threw in a little Diablo and a touch of Gamer.
SYNOPSIS:
Corporations now hire gamers to battle other corporate entities for the rights to prime advertising space and the minds and wallets of consumers in a massive Call of Duty and Battlefield like game known as WarWorld. Gamer PerfectQuestion is walking into more than virtual bullets as his real life is in danger from people who have their own agenda. As if our protagonist didnt have enough issues his relationship and money issues force him into an illegal underground online game that has mysteries and dangers of it's own. And it is chock full of wonderful little geek surprises and references that had me grinning like a fool.
This book is perfect for Gamers, and pop culture Geeks as well as fans of Ready player one, Video game High school, Gamer, Aliens, FPS, MMOs and RPG's, action and adventure sci-fi, and weirdly foodies because about 3/4 of the way through the book I was having a Game of Thrones moment as I Realized how much Cole and Martin both love to add food to their books...better watch your waste line Mr Cole:)
One more benefit for me very personally with this book is that although it is not at all a YA book I love the fact that I can safely hand this to my 14 YO son (and my wife) without fear. Thank you Mr Cole for not feeling the need to throw random sex and vulgarity through the book so I can share this great book without apprehension, Do not stray away from that.
I want to give this 4 1/2 stars but no half stars are available and my personal issues shouldn't take away from wanting other to read this. I wasn't thrilled with the image of yet another gamer who smoked too much (and I prefer Evan Williams Honey to Scotch :)). Apparently Mr. Cole is a Seinfeld fan...Plllttttt :). Lastly I felt one of the major strings should have been resolved in a much bigger way it felt a little understated when I wanted explosive...But I hear from a reliable source that there could be Sequels (Hopefully so buy the damn book) so maybe that thread is still open.
Bottom line is it's a fun book and Ready Player One fans and Gamers of all types should enjoy this a great deal...now go ahead, go buy it.
July 23, 2014
Very entertaining adventure through the life of a future gamer who faces extreme odds of survival in game and out. Our gamer, PerfectQuestion, is the leader of a ColaCorp professional first person shooter team who is losing game after game to a big time team in WonderSoft. The cost per loss are major advertising slots for WonderSoft and if his team keeps losing he'll be out of a job. The story starts out with some pretty cool Call of Duty type action, mixed in with Question's rocky relationship with his girlfriend and a need to make money for rent. We get pieces of the world that really make the setting one I wanted to explore, and lucky for the reader, you will. I wonder how much more in future books as there are plenty of stones unturned.
In a desperate attempt to make the last half of rent, Question buys an illegal entry into a role playing game called The Black. Imagine a World of Warcraft type game that has a seedy underbelly for all kinds of sick people to work out their fantasies. Question is a mostly morally upright guy, so he hopes for The Light, but I think it's safe to say this book isn't going to make anything easy on him.
Without spoiling anything, Question goes from chasing rent money to fighting for his life at high speeds and from a very powerful enemy. Cole displayed a strong talent in making each chapter up the ante on excitement and engagement with his world and characters. I felt for him as his relationship hit rockbottom, then rooted for him to make the right choices in game and out. Cole explores life in the future when society in Question's city is separated from high rises and slums below and what Question will do when given the opportunity to live in the high rises.
I think this story will really entertain gamers, but even just people who like military and role playing strategy with a hint of future technology to day dream about what could be. There were some parts where I wished the games were virtual reality so that he could actually feel what was happening, and then I was surprised by parts that did. Nice touch. And then we reached the climax and the out of game threat blended with the in game threat to an incredible breath taking chapter. Question makes and loses some friends and I hope to get another book with him so that we can explore relationships and himself on a deeper level. This isn't exactly that kind of series, though. Question is not the kind of guy to go too deep into his relationship problems, and so neither did the story. Most of the focus was on action and gamer scenarios. While I enjoyed those, I guess I wanted more character relationship conflict. Regardless, great story by a very talented writer in Nick Cole. Highly recommended.
In a desperate attempt to make the last half of rent, Question buys an illegal entry into a role playing game called The Black. Imagine a World of Warcraft type game that has a seedy underbelly for all kinds of sick people to work out their fantasies. Question is a mostly morally upright guy, so he hopes for The Light, but I think it's safe to say this book isn't going to make anything easy on him.
Without spoiling anything, Question goes from chasing rent money to fighting for his life at high speeds and from a very powerful enemy. Cole displayed a strong talent in making each chapter up the ante on excitement and engagement with his world and characters. I felt for him as his relationship hit rockbottom, then rooted for him to make the right choices in game and out. Cole explores life in the future when society in Question's city is separated from high rises and slums below and what Question will do when given the opportunity to live in the high rises.
I think this story will really entertain gamers, but even just people who like military and role playing strategy with a hint of future technology to day dream about what could be. There were some parts where I wished the games were virtual reality so that he could actually feel what was happening, and then I was surprised by parts that did. Nice touch. And then we reached the climax and the out of game threat blended with the in game threat to an incredible breath taking chapter. Question makes and loses some friends and I hope to get another book with him so that we can explore relationships and himself on a deeper level. This isn't exactly that kind of series, though. Question is not the kind of guy to go too deep into his relationship problems, and so neither did the story. Most of the focus was on action and gamer scenarios. While I enjoyed those, I guess I wanted more character relationship conflict. Regardless, great story by a very talented writer in Nick Cole. Highly recommended.
August 14, 2014
Nick Cole's Soda Pop Soldier, is so much more then its rough and tumble "gamer saga" synopsis leads one to believe.
Yes, it is about professional gamer Perfect Question's bid to survive in a world ruled by the all mighty advertizing dollar.
Yes, he has just lost his girlfriend, and is about to lose his apartment, if he can't find some way to come up with his rent money...fast.
Yes, his scotch and sodas have consisted of much more scotch, and much less soda as of late, but what does that mean...really?
What it means for readers is an up close and personal look at one man's "what if game".
What we have in the person of PerfectQuestion, is Joe Everyman. Someone trying to pay rent, stay afloat, have a relationship, and be as happy as circumstance will allow.
What this book so brilliantly illustrates is: What happens when the tenuous web upon which we build our lives falls apart at the seams, and the lengths to which we will go to save or better said existence.
Author Nick Cole provides readers with a very lush and viscerally appealing virtual world in Soda Pop Soldier. It becomes almost second nature when reading to slip into the online gaming world, and live that as a far more real place than that of this character's non AI life.
That is a big plus for readers who, like myself are not big gamers.
The stakes for both Perfect Question and the reader are taken to higher levels on all fronts when he resorts to illegal gaming in order to make ends meet.
Down...
Down...
Down the rabbit hole we go.
Now, playing in the persona of Wu, a Samurai, with more than a few obstacles in his path to glory. He must make his way through a plethora of temptations, pitfalls, treasures, and triumphs, to find his way to the money and security he is after.
As always, there are plots, schemes, and conspiracies afoot, and there is danger, help, and WTF to be found in both PerfectQuestion's/Wu's online and off-line hours.
This book appeals to the thinking reader. A reader who looks below the surface of character actions, to discover his motives.
A complex and somewhat philosophical tale, Soda Pop Solider will make you think, make you wonder, and may even make you rethink your answer to the question...
How far is too far?
Is there ever a true right or wrong?
Can you ever have everything you want?
ARE YOU HAPPY?
September 19, 2015
This book is so not my type. It's about gaming, and I am not a gamer. It's about military warfare, and I don't like reading about military. I read this book for only one reason - Nick Cole wrote it. I have thoroughly enjoyed everything else of his I read so I held on to the hope that his writing would overcome my dislikes. My bet paid off although I will admit I didn't enjoy it as much as the Wastelands Trilogy, his Apocalypse Weird stories or the more recent The End of the World as We Knew It.
In this future, large corporations fight for advertising space in the real world via online wars. Our protagonist, who mainly goes by his online name PerfectQuestion, works for Cola Corp. They are in an online war against Wondersoft. This is PQ's only source of income and Cola Corp is losing the war. In the real world, a very wealthy and powerful sociopath is trying to make sure this happens. He tries to recruit PQ but when he doesn't bite, he decides to kill him instead.
PQ has no money as his pay is tied to winning battles, and as I mentioned Cola corp is losing. PQ decides to spend the rent money to take part in an illegal online game in hopes of winning big, or at least big enough to pay the bills and keep his girlfriend happy. Shortly after he starts playing, he learns that a new player has entered the game with the sole purpose of killing him.
If this story were just about gaming or just about military, I don't think I would have liked it as much as I did. Everything was tied in so well together and it was a lot of fun. Recommended for gamers, military and fantasy fans.
In this future, large corporations fight for advertising space in the real world via online wars. Our protagonist, who mainly goes by his online name PerfectQuestion, works for Cola Corp. They are in an online war against Wondersoft. This is PQ's only source of income and Cola Corp is losing the war. In the real world, a very wealthy and powerful sociopath is trying to make sure this happens. He tries to recruit PQ but when he doesn't bite, he decides to kill him instead.
PQ has no money as his pay is tied to winning battles, and as I mentioned Cola corp is losing. PQ decides to spend the rent money to take part in an illegal online game in hopes of winning big, or at least big enough to pay the bills and keep his girlfriend happy. Shortly after he starts playing, he learns that a new player has entered the game with the sole purpose of killing him.
If this story were just about gaming or just about military, I don't think I would have liked it as much as I did. Everything was tied in so well together and it was a lot of fun. Recommended for gamers, military and fantasy fans.
April 19, 2016
This novel consists of two interwoven stories, both partly taking place inside computer games, and both centering on one character, a professional gamer whose personal life is on the edge of falling apart.
In this world, corporations stage televised combats, inside games, for advertising rights and perhaps other intangibles. The gamer whose tag is PerfectQuestion is one of the leading video warriors for ColaCorp, a company that is badly losing a war to another company. Why and how are they losing? Is there something crooked about the game, or is it something even more sinister.
When he's not playing for his regular job, he's moonlighting by playing another online game, in hopes of recouping his finances, and there is nothing NOT sinister about that game. Just creepiness to entice the audience to plunk down more money to watch.
Who can you trust in either game, or the real world?
What Cole did really well is to write the scenes in which the character and the reader are barely sure what's going on. Whether it's a girlfriend's odd new behavior or a really strange death threat, these become delightful scenes.
There are a few weaknesses. I didn't really get what the author was about in the Italy segment, with the characters who were odd stereotypes in a weird at-home sequence. Also, the one big villain was so over-the-top that his self-referential James Bond villainy lines were just weird. I mean, the guy knew that he was creepy and crazy, and yet supposedly smart enough to hatch a really dangerous plot? Hmmm.
The story itself was a page-turner, and I look forward to tracking down his other books.
In this world, corporations stage televised combats, inside games, for advertising rights and perhaps other intangibles. The gamer whose tag is PerfectQuestion is one of the leading video warriors for ColaCorp, a company that is badly losing a war to another company. Why and how are they losing? Is there something crooked about the game, or is it something even more sinister.
When he's not playing for his regular job, he's moonlighting by playing another online game, in hopes of recouping his finances, and there is nothing NOT sinister about that game. Just creepiness to entice the audience to plunk down more money to watch.
Who can you trust in either game, or the real world?
What Cole did really well is to write the scenes in which the character and the reader are barely sure what's going on. Whether it's a girlfriend's odd new behavior or a really strange death threat, these become delightful scenes.
There are a few weaknesses. I didn't really get what the author was about in the Italy segment, with the characters who were odd stereotypes in a weird at-home sequence. Also, the one big villain was so over-the-top that his self-referential James Bond villainy lines were just weird. I mean, the guy knew that he was creepy and crazy, and yet supposedly smart enough to hatch a really dangerous plot? Hmmm.
The story itself was a page-turner, and I look forward to tracking down his other books.
October 26, 2014
Soda Pop Soldier, like a well shaken soda, explodes with action as soon as you open the first chapter. The title does grab you and within a few pages the writing and the storyline grab you -- and then there is nothing for it but to keep reading, and reading, and reading into the wee hours of the night. The mark of a good story is that it has its own internal logic that you, the reader, accept as reality. And that certainly happens in this book. But, besides the action and the uniqueness of the plot, there is a much deeper storyline. A world made perfect and beautiful-- but then sullied by the evil desires of the perverse and the demented. A self-sacrificing hero who remains true to his principles and in the end pays the ultimate price to right the wrongs of his world. Good in a blood match with Evil. And overarching all the sense that love is something that drives us all--the love of two lovers, the love of brothers in arms, the love for humanity itself. Oh yes, we have seen this before, and it is timeless. Nick Cole does an excellent job of presenting the clash of good and evil in a world seemingly controlled by evil-- and in the process Cole makes us all feel that good can prevail if motives remain pure. I highly recommend this book for the action but more so for the message.Gary L Close
October 13, 2016
Ladies and gentlemen, this might be one of my favorite books I've read to date. It may not fall into the depths with Tolkien or Lewis but it soars high above the masses. It is entertaining, exciting, creative and ambitious. Having not read every book written, I can't give credit to originality, but it was original to me.
If Freddie Wong (rocketjump, Video Game Highschool) had the perfect material to create his next groundbreaking work this would be it.
I didn't know what to expect from the start. I had been perusing my local Half Price Books bookstore for weeks trying to find the next book to satisfy my snobbish hunger and this book figuratively leapt off the shelf half a dozen times. Each time I thought, "I've never heard of this book, or its author," and dismissed it. It wouldn't be the first amazing book cover that I'd turned down.
After this continued to happen time and time again, I gave up my search for Ready Player One by Ernest Cline and gave into the book fates- I've never been more pleased. Start to finish it was a great ride. If I'd had more free time, and less non-fiction reading requirements for work, I'd have finished this book in just a couple of sittings. Every time I had to put it down and great sense of sadness overtook me!
I've purposely avoided all spoilers. Just do yourself a favor and buy this book.
If Freddie Wong (rocketjump, Video Game Highschool) had the perfect material to create his next groundbreaking work this would be it.
I didn't know what to expect from the start. I had been perusing my local Half Price Books bookstore for weeks trying to find the next book to satisfy my snobbish hunger and this book figuratively leapt off the shelf half a dozen times. Each time I thought, "I've never heard of this book, or its author," and dismissed it. It wouldn't be the first amazing book cover that I'd turned down.
After this continued to happen time and time again, I gave up my search for Ready Player One by Ernest Cline and gave into the book fates- I've never been more pleased. Start to finish it was a great ride. If I'd had more free time, and less non-fiction reading requirements for work, I'd have finished this book in just a couple of sittings. Every time I had to put it down and great sense of sadness overtook me!
I've purposely avoided all spoilers. Just do yourself a favor and buy this book.
February 26, 2015
Soda Pop Soldier has to be one of the best books I’ve read in the 2014/2015 span so far. First person shooter, MMORPG, noir-style, thriller, the list goes on-and-on. Ready Player One was my first stepping stone into Gamer-fiction and while it was very well done, SPS blows it out of the water. At times RPO felt very heavy with overdone nostalgic references, Soda Pop is nothing like that. There are only a few references to existing products everything else is created solely for SPS’s world. Nick Cole created a very in-depth world too, I wanted to go out and get a copy of The Black and jump right in. The main character, PerfectQuestion is a professional gamer who is employed by a corporation named ColaCorp, to claim virtual advertising space with his unit in a Call of Duty-like combat arena against other corporations. Soda Pop Soldier is a violent action-packed, can’t put the book down, white knuckled experience, especially when real life intervenes. A lack of funds forces PerfectQuestion to turn to a rash decision and it greatly affects the rest of the story. If you like fast-paced sci-fi and well written fiction that constantly makes you want more without leaving you empty, Nick Cole’s Soda Pop Soldier is a no brainer. See you in The Black!
October 12, 2014
Soda Pop Soldier was an immersive experience from the opening screen. Nick Cole draws metaphors from a lifetime of PC gaming, military service, and literary history. I was drawn into his multiple worlds immediately - personally having entered gaming with pong, Zelda, Myst, and Doom. With a nod to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and Stephen King's Dark Tower series, Cole's unique struggle between light and darkness twists through seemingly divergent games and the character's own futuristic post-dystopian reality - eventually connecting these tapestries with a thread of humanity. Watch out for the cross platform vamps - whether fanged, weaponized, or seductive. Cole uses a Tarantino brush adding shades of Kill Bill to this modern classic. Underlying the action adventure is a man's existential journey, shared with insight to our shared human emotions and life choices. Soda Pop Soldier is an excellent read - congratulations Nick Cole. (que major key wooden flute and shamisen) End Game.
November 13, 2014
As I was thinking of a book to compare this with, the one that came to mind is Cline's Ready Player One; both are set in somewhat, not dystopian, but rather disappointing futures, as if the edges of cyberpunk have been worn down into a sad existence while techno marvels are everywhere. But, unlike Ready Player One, this is focused on an adult who actually has a pretty strong sense of self and is already making video games his living.
The plot drives the story, as the at-risk-of-losing-his-job lead realizes that he needs to hold on longer -- in both his video game playing and early part of the novel, he's not ambitious, just trying to do the mission one more night, pay rent for one more month in the hopes that someone (he or somebody else, left unresolved) will figure out something. The transformation in the novel as he pushes harder and even learns to let go is well done.
The plot drives the story, as the at-risk-of-losing-his-job lead realizes that he needs to hold on longer -- in both his video game playing and early part of the novel, he's not ambitious, just trying to do the mission one more night, pay rent for one more month in the hopes that someone (he or somebody else, left unresolved) will figure out something. The transformation in the novel as he pushes harder and even learns to let go is well done.
February 16, 2015
What an excellent book! If you loved Ready Player One by Ernest Cline then you will absolutely love this book. It is made of similar stuff and it follows a bit of the same theme. In the future advertising rights are decided in virtual war. Professional gamers are paid by corporations to wage virtual war with the winning side getting control of real life advertising locations, in other words if you want your ads on the jumbotron in Times Square then you better have your virtual army keep control of certain locations in the game. Our main character us one suck cyber soldier. Sadly he is on what appears to be the losing team.
His paycheck is directly tied to his wins and losses. So he needs to pay his way into a black market game with high risks and rewards. However as the story goes on his very life depends on how he plays both games.
This just joined my favorites shelf and I now need to look into the authors other works.
His paycheck is directly tied to his wins and losses. So he needs to pay his way into a black market game with high risks and rewards. However as the story goes on his very life depends on how he plays both games.
This just joined my favorites shelf and I now need to look into the authors other works.
September 29, 2014
I'm not a gamer but I am such a fan of The Wasteland Saga, that I had to give Nick Cole's latest book a go, and thank heavens I did. A flat out fun read, sure, but the book doesn't end there because we have this protagonist who does what is right, and good, regardless of what society, or the situation might have allowed. No situational ethics here, In three different worlds PerfectQuestion has every excuse and opportunity to opt for an easier path. No one would get hurt, heck in many instances he is operating in a virtual game world-- seriously, no one will get hurt. But what we do. Even in the small things, determines who we are, and PerfectQuestion gets that. I like this character, and I hope we get to meet again.
June 18, 2015
This book is, simply put, a ton of fun and designed to put a smile on your face at the most unexpected times. Full of "ain't that cool" moments, this is a story about futuristic competitive video gaming that will appeal to anybody who has soldiered in the far-flung vistas of the Internet. For the video gamer in your life, it's a can't miss.
December 21, 2015
Great book, by a great author. I have always enjoyed reading Nick's books, and I consider him an auto-read after finding him through Apocalypse Weird.
I loved the futuristic setting, and as a gamer myself, I appreciated the nod to that world, as well as the play on advertising and marketing. This was easy to read, and Nick put me right in PerfectQuestion's head. Highly recommend this one.
I loved the futuristic setting, and as a gamer myself, I appreciated the nod to that world, as well as the play on advertising and marketing. This was easy to read, and Nick put me right in PerfectQuestion's head. Highly recommend this one.
August 28, 2015
A professional gamer in the future in a Call of Duty type of game is trying to make a bit of extra cash on the side, however he soon realizes that he's way in over his head in a game that is not really a game...a thoroughly fun book, an absolute must for gamers and for fans of Ready Player One.
September 15, 2014
Fun fun fun! A 3 layer story, all kind of interconnected.
February 17, 2015
A great read - an entertaining, fast paced and fun story set in an intriguing and well realised world.
February 8, 2016
An interesting take on how online gaming could look in the future. Great pace and incredibly detailed battle scenes. If you love Snowcrash by Neil Stevenson you will love this book.
September 20, 2016
The bleakness of the world and the cyberpunk aspects reminded me a lot of Neuromancer.
April 5, 2015
3.5/5 Rating: Originally posted at https://mylifemybooksmyescape.wordpre...
Gamers! Put down that controller and pick up this book!
This book was not at all what I expected to be. Going in, I was expecting some kind of mixture between Video Game High School, where e-sports basically replace the popularity of present day sports, and Sword Art Online, where video games feel more like life than a game. Well, yes, I did indeed get that, but what I did not expect - and was pleasantly surprised about - was what else this book had to offer. It was more than just merely following around the life of a pro-gamer in need of money.
PerfectQuestion is a pro-gamer playing for team ColaCorp. They are battling it out in the the FPS game WarWorld against WonderSoft for advertising rights. It has been long months of losing battles for team ColaCorp, and it appears than now WonderSoft may in the position to finally beat them once and for all. If this does happen, it will be the end of PerfectQuestion's pro-gamer status, and his only source of income.
Outside of the gaming world, Perfect is also in serious financial difficulties. Due to the losing of his team, money is thin. He is far behind on his rent, and his girlfriend in this close to just walking out on him. Perfect knows that if he doesn't come up with a win next game, or some kind money soon, it will be the end of his career, girlfriend, and home.
He makes a decision buy into the Black - a highly illegal online gaming network where serious amounts of money can be made, but where some things that are flat-out dark, twisted, and disgusting can be found. It is in here, that Perfect finds himself in a position, one would not expect from a video game.
Perfect will have to survive the demons of the Black, the gun-fire of WarWorld, and where both these game cross - the real world.
A major strength this novel has, is how genuine and real Perfect felt as a gamer. It was very akin to how I feel when I'm playing. Staying up late, forgetting to eat, and just losing myself in the game and forgetting the real world completely. How Perfect appears to feel playing these, like one is a game while the other one feel like life, I thought was very appropriate as well. In the FPS Perfect is playing a marine, but in the MMO he becomes his character.
WarWorld is essentially Call of Duty, and reading it, it felt like Perfect was playing a FPS. The voice chatting with other teammates, selecting the his load-out, and using gamertags instead of names. In the describing of the gaming environment, Nick points out how the terrain is computer generated, and even the gun battles themselves (which are good) feel like they are part of a game-fight, rather than a real-life fight.
The Black on the other hand - I figured it would be something along lines of online poker (betting money per match) but in Diablo gameplay. You do pay per match and it is basically like playing a Diablo-esq MMORPG, but it is so much, so so much more than a game. Just like when you play an MMO or a RPG, at some point you get so invested in the game and world, with your character, and other players there, you almost forget that it is a game, and that this virtual world you are in isn't real. Essentially what you are doing in just living out a second life in a fantasy world, but to you, this 'game' feels real. This is part of what the Black represents, and is where I found the story had more to offer than what the synopsis lead me to believe.
There is stuff in there, the Black, that doesn't feel like a video game, nor would you expect to see in one. It raises some moral, ethical, and even psycho/sociological question. We do not delve deeply into them, but they are found. The world that this novel takes place in, it is not the present, but some near-distant future, where some event happened, and games now have the capabilities to do these things we find in the Black. I don't want to explain and ruin what Perfect encounters in there, but it is not just a video game.
This brings me to my main dislike - we don't learn enough outside of the gaming world. The video game world-building is great, but this future we are in, seems so fascinating and mysterious, but we never completely learn how it came to be or how things fully work. This is because the story is told from Perfect's point of view - a gamer.
As a gamer, what are you focused on? The game. Now what if a person is gamer, has a full-time job playing video games, and to get more money, needs to stay up to the crack of dawn in the morning playing more games? Well, you get someone who is focused on, and consumed by video games almost 24/7.
This is a double-edged sword for me. I like it because it exaggerates and really draws on what it is like to play video games. That staying up until the crack of dawn and get lost in their world. To use them to escape, and forget about everything else. Points for that. BUT tell me what has happened to the world, and show me some feelings Perfect! You're about to lose your house, and already got dumped by your girlfriend, but never once do you give her more than a passing thought here and there. Every time it comes up, Perfect just goes back into the game.
The conflict I face with this is that I do like it, because it is true to his character as a gamer, but bugs me as a reader, because I want more of his personality with these issues, and to hear what else is going on his head. The "problem" is, Perfect's personality just isn't one who cares about those things. It's a flaw, but all characters have flaws. If Nick had chosen to delve more into the state of the world as it is now, and Perfect's situations with females, it may have improved the depth of Perfect's character, but it could have ruined it too. I think it may have taken away from the emphasis of him as a gamer, and shifted what the focus of what the story was on. This is one of the issues that can arise from a single POV through a story though.
Another thing I would like to point out is the WarWorld gun fights. They are fast, intense, and entertaining, but I found them - all except one - to be a little drawn out at times. I myself am not a big military fight or COD fan so maybe that's why? (Although I LOVE Unreal Tournament 2003 and TF2). The one fight I was glued to, had to do with a certain 70's/80's horror & sci-fi film. That fight had me stuck in my chair! (If only Colonial Marines had been as good... :( )
This story also contains quite a few easter eggs, such as that movie, so be on the lookout for them. And speaking of eggs, Nick Cole has some of the tastiest, and most mouth-watering descriptions of food I have ever read! There is this shake, and a burger, and this croissant... just wait until you get to them! And from a conversation I had with Nick on Twitter yesterday, "[the burger] is a high performance version of one that you can get at Unami Burger ." I've never been there before, but they look GOOD, and if they are just half as good as the one Nick describes in the book... next time I go through NYC I'm making a detour!
Now, do I recommend this? Yes*. If you are gamer, I have no doubt that will thoroughly enjoy this story, have a fun time with it, and appreciate it to its fullest, being able to see the deeper meaning of what the Black represents. Also, if you are into military fiction, you may enjoy this as well. A lot of the story takes place in gun-fights on the battlefield in WarWorld. If you aren't into either of the two, then the lack of real world, and our main protagonist being the only POV and such a focused gamer, may turn you off...
I was impressed with this novel, and how well Nick was able to represent some aspects of playing games and the video-game culture. No-doubt, Nick gave me more than I had expected. I think there are going to be some sequels (pretty sure I heard that on the AISFP podcast - could be mistaken though) so maybe in them we might learn more of the real world and see Perfect developer outside of a gamer? If there are sequels, I will be picking them up though.
I am extremely tempted say a must-read for all gamers! You'll have fun with this! (At least read the preview).
Do you have any favorite video games? Few of mine are Diablo 2, Star Fox 64, and God of War.
3.5/5 Rating
-DJ
Gamers! Put down that controller and pick up this book!
This book was not at all what I expected to be. Going in, I was expecting some kind of mixture between Video Game High School, where e-sports basically replace the popularity of present day sports, and Sword Art Online, where video games feel more like life than a game. Well, yes, I did indeed get that, but what I did not expect - and was pleasantly surprised about - was what else this book had to offer. It was more than just merely following around the life of a pro-gamer in need of money.
PerfectQuestion is a pro-gamer playing for team ColaCorp. They are battling it out in the the FPS game WarWorld against WonderSoft for advertising rights. It has been long months of losing battles for team ColaCorp, and it appears than now WonderSoft may in the position to finally beat them once and for all. If this does happen, it will be the end of PerfectQuestion's pro-gamer status, and his only source of income.
Outside of the gaming world, Perfect is also in serious financial difficulties. Due to the losing of his team, money is thin. He is far behind on his rent, and his girlfriend in this close to just walking out on him. Perfect knows that if he doesn't come up with a win next game, or some kind money soon, it will be the end of his career, girlfriend, and home.
He makes a decision buy into the Black - a highly illegal online gaming network where serious amounts of money can be made, but where some things that are flat-out dark, twisted, and disgusting can be found. It is in here, that Perfect finds himself in a position, one would not expect from a video game.
Perfect will have to survive the demons of the Black, the gun-fire of WarWorld, and where both these game cross - the real world.
A major strength this novel has, is how genuine and real Perfect felt as a gamer. It was very akin to how I feel when I'm playing. Staying up late, forgetting to eat, and just losing myself in the game and forgetting the real world completely. How Perfect appears to feel playing these, like one is a game while the other one feel like life, I thought was very appropriate as well. In the FPS Perfect is playing a marine, but in the MMO he becomes his character.
WarWorld is essentially Call of Duty, and reading it, it felt like Perfect was playing a FPS. The voice chatting with other teammates, selecting the his load-out, and using gamertags instead of names. In the describing of the gaming environment, Nick points out how the terrain is computer generated, and even the gun battles themselves (which are good) feel like they are part of a game-fight, rather than a real-life fight.
The Black on the other hand - I figured it would be something along lines of online poker (betting money per match) but in Diablo gameplay. You do pay per match and it is basically like playing a Diablo-esq MMORPG, but it is so much, so so much more than a game. Just like when you play an MMO or a RPG, at some point you get so invested in the game and world, with your character, and other players there, you almost forget that it is a game, and that this virtual world you are in isn't real. Essentially what you are doing in just living out a second life in a fantasy world, but to you, this 'game' feels real. This is part of what the Black represents, and is where I found the story had more to offer than what the synopsis lead me to believe.
There is stuff in there, the Black, that doesn't feel like a video game, nor would you expect to see in one. It raises some moral, ethical, and even psycho/sociological question. We do not delve deeply into them, but they are found. The world that this novel takes place in, it is not the present, but some near-distant future, where some event happened, and games now have the capabilities to do these things we find in the Black. I don't want to explain and ruin what Perfect encounters in there, but it is not just a video game.
This brings me to my main dislike - we don't learn enough outside of the gaming world. The video game world-building is great, but this future we are in, seems so fascinating and mysterious, but we never completely learn how it came to be or how things fully work. This is because the story is told from Perfect's point of view - a gamer.
As a gamer, what are you focused on? The game. Now what if a person is gamer, has a full-time job playing video games, and to get more money, needs to stay up to the crack of dawn in the morning playing more games? Well, you get someone who is focused on, and consumed by video games almost 24/7.
This is a double-edged sword for me. I like it because it exaggerates and really draws on what it is like to play video games. That staying up until the crack of dawn and get lost in their world. To use them to escape, and forget about everything else. Points for that. BUT tell me what has happened to the world, and show me some feelings Perfect! You're about to lose your house, and already got dumped by your girlfriend, but never once do you give her more than a passing thought here and there. Every time it comes up, Perfect just goes back into the game.
The conflict I face with this is that I do like it, because it is true to his character as a gamer, but bugs me as a reader, because I want more of his personality with these issues, and to hear what else is going on his head. The "problem" is, Perfect's personality just isn't one who cares about those things. It's a flaw, but all characters have flaws. If Nick had chosen to delve more into the state of the world as it is now, and Perfect's situations with females, it may have improved the depth of Perfect's character, but it could have ruined it too. I think it may have taken away from the emphasis of him as a gamer, and shifted what the focus of what the story was on. This is one of the issues that can arise from a single POV through a story though.
Another thing I would like to point out is the WarWorld gun fights. They are fast, intense, and entertaining, but I found them - all except one - to be a little drawn out at times. I myself am not a big military fight or COD fan so maybe that's why? (Although I LOVE Unreal Tournament 2003 and TF2). The one fight I was glued to, had to do with a certain 70's/80's horror & sci-fi film. That fight had me stuck in my chair! (If only Colonial Marines had been as good... :( )
This story also contains quite a few easter eggs, such as that movie, so be on the lookout for them. And speaking of eggs, Nick Cole has some of the tastiest, and most mouth-watering descriptions of food I have ever read! There is this shake, and a burger, and this croissant... just wait until you get to them! And from a conversation I had with Nick on Twitter yesterday, "[the burger] is a high performance version of one that you can get at Unami Burger ." I've never been there before, but they look GOOD, and if they are just half as good as the one Nick describes in the book... next time I go through NYC I'm making a detour!
Now, do I recommend this? Yes*. If you are gamer, I have no doubt that will thoroughly enjoy this story, have a fun time with it, and appreciate it to its fullest, being able to see the deeper meaning of what the Black represents. Also, if you are into military fiction, you may enjoy this as well. A lot of the story takes place in gun-fights on the battlefield in WarWorld. If you aren't into either of the two, then the lack of real world, and our main protagonist being the only POV and such a focused gamer, may turn you off...
I was impressed with this novel, and how well Nick was able to represent some aspects of playing games and the video-game culture. No-doubt, Nick gave me more than I had expected. I think there are going to be some sequels (pretty sure I heard that on the AISFP podcast - could be mistaken though) so maybe in them we might learn more of the real world and see Perfect developer outside of a gamer? If there are sequels, I will be picking them up though.
I am extremely tempted say a must-read for all gamers! You'll have fun with this! (At least read the preview).
Do you have any favorite video games? Few of mine are Diablo 2, Star Fox 64, and God of War.
3.5/5 Rating
-DJ
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