The Broken World

by Tim Etchells

For fans of Douglas Coupland and J.G. Ballard, The Broken World is an extremely original, off-beat novel – part fiction, part computer game – about life, love and happiness, not just in the real world, but in the online one too.

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy

336 pages, Paperback

First published July 3, 2008

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first the notion of a novel written as a walkthrough for a video game repelled me. Especially since the narrator appeared to be a spotty loser with poor grammar.

But I was wrong. This book is rollicking read. It is original in how it manages to wed the two worlds, real and unreal, so seamlessly that you feel you are part of two narratives, caring deeply about both.

Very warm, funny and engaging.

[Caleb Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much is touted about the book’s unique video game walkthrough format, but unfortunately it is this element that presents many of the novel’s problems. The walkthrough portions are rambling and vague, which go against the purpose for a traditional video game walkthrough. Author, Tim Etchell definitely takes liberties to make the format more story-friendly, which ultimately made a better book. However, considering that the main draw for me (and I assume many others) is this walkthrough style, the execution disappoints.

The video game itself, aptly called The Broken World, lacks the structure of any true video game. Initially, I tried following the game’s logic as the narrator describes it, but eventually I realized that the game itself is an impossibility. After this realization, I felt relieved that I wouldn’t be charged with remembering details, but at the same time I was dissatisfied that these game elements would ultimately amount to little more than aesthetic page filler.

Overall, witnessing the narrator’s increasing isolation from the real world, as he demonstrates his expertise with The Broken World, is a satisfying draw, making this book worth the read. Just, don’t push too many of your to-reads out of the way for it, though.

[Svetlana Dorokhova · Rating 2 out of 5]

Я наконец-то дочитала ее. Да, именно так - наконец-то. Не могу сказать, что написана она тяжело, читается довольно легко, но в книге совершенно отсутствуют диалоги и все написано сплошным текстом. Благо, что главы делятся на подразделы. Однако книга очень мутная. Бывают же такие? Я люблю компьютерные игры, и мне было интересно, как это все автор соединит с реальным миром. Но, честно говоря, я совершенно не поняла, почему именно игра "Разрушенный мир", а не другая, и вообще зачем все это писалось. То есть она переплеталась с реальной жизнью героя, некоторые места действительно совпадали по действиям и смыслу, но все равно осталось какое-то непонимание. И стоит заметить, что настолько проработанных до мельчайших подробностей игр даже сейчас нет, потому слабо верилось в происходящее.
Хотелось бы отдать должное переводчику, у него была нелегкая работа передать манеру общения геймера, и он с ней справился. Хотя сам герой вообще странный, непонятно, сколько ему лет, порой его размышления и поступки тянули на пятнадцатилетнего подростка (а по книге ясно, что ему намного больше). Но есть и положительные моменты: мне понравился местами юмор, чудаковатые родители Тори и реакция героя на их бесконечные вопросы.

[OldBird · Rating 2 out of 5]

If it were real, this would be the worst walkthrough of the most convoluted game ever made.

Thankfully, it is not real and our unreliable narrator is not guiding us through the multi-faceted psychological thriller/first person fighter game known as The Broken World. This is a story of someone who has lost themselves to gaming so much that they live through the game characters rather than engaging with real life.

On one side is the game and it's two protagonists, Ray and Rachel, who are separated and must find each other again against the odds (bad guys something something...). The game is illogical and bizarre, full of fighting and puzzles. It's a mash of FPS/science-fiction/fantasy/horror survival/RPG/open-world and is stupendously over-engineered. No wonder it would need a walkthrough.

On the other side is our narrator: a man who lives an unfulfilling life cooking pizzas, drinking with his gamer buddies, and studiously ignoring his live-in girlfriend Tory. At the start of the book, his insistence that the game is not about winning but about helping Ray survive gives a hint of just how much he lives via the game. The "life" of Ray seems to mean more to him that anyone else. He even shows an unusual respect for the character of Rachel, which uncomfortably mirrors his apparent lack of interest in his own girlfriend.

However as time goes on and terrible real world events come crashing into his life, he's forced to think more on what everything means to him. The game allows him to have philosophical musings on existence. When he thinks about death in the real world versus death in a game world and why should a character get a second chance just because they're in a game. The game glitches where he can see the wireframe that makes up the game world and what it would be like to slip through the cracks goes with his thoughts on how it must be for his mentally ill friend is really quite clever. He may not be able to spell or get his capslock to work properly, but he's capable of empathy. When faced with so much loss, there's something sad and stoic about how he carries on. The game is taking everything from him, but it's also his lifeline.

It was an odd and frustrating read. The concept of it being some kind of blog is interesting, but I did find it difficult to plough through, and the fragmented nature of the chapters could be a little jarring (although I understand that this does work to the book's advantage as it reflects our narrator's mental state, especially later on). I did find myself skim-reading some sections because of the writing style choice. The narrator's character comes through enough to keep an interest in the real life sections, although I did feel rather lost regarding the game. Perhaps that's the point. The game, no matter how absorbing, is essentially pointless compared to real life.

[Nelson · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise (an online walkthrough for what eventually proves to be the most elaborate computer game ever invented) is clever. But after a time it wears thin. There is some mileage to be gotten out of thinking about how the elements of the game the walkthrough covers relate to the main character's life as he is living it. But not much. And at a certain point verisimilitude kind of goes out the window. For instance, the main character has to keep coming up with excuses to set the walkthrough aside and vent about his life (which is the main plot of the novel). This gets old quickly, which Etchells seems to understand. After a time the character no longer pretends to be doing just a walkthrough. But if the walkthrough turns into his own not-very-private blog, one has to wonder why he is writing it? After all, the main character evidences plenty of savvy when it comes to the world of online identities and blogs. So why would a person so obviously devoted to the world of the Broken World rant so endlessly about his life in a semi-public place? He even goes back and forth on the private public thing: there are countless shout-outs to his friends (Hi Tory) even as he evidences paranoia about various responders tracking him down in real life. Apparently much of the meat here is meant to reside in the pseudo philosophical material about the nature of reality (if a character in a game doesn't do X now, Y later will not be available and how this is like real life). Unfortunately these musings don't feel fully baked. It doesn't help that the main character is a total slacker consistently worried about being pseudo-philosophical. It all starts to feel way too mediated after a time. Ultimately, when you take away the framing device of the walkthrough, what one is left with is the story of a not particularly interesting or bright wage slave who devotes lots of time to his favorite band and video game at the expense of his connection to his girlfriend and small network of cohorts. Boy loses girl, sort of. Boy gets girl back, sort of. Boy loses friends, sort of. Boy gets friends back, sort of. Not much lost, not much gained, kind of like a video game, where victory changes nothing and losing just means booting up an earlier save. The main character doesn't feel like someone who has won through to any higher wisdom, or, if he has, it feels very much unearned (as do the returns of Tory and Brainiac). A pleasant diversion, ultimately, that doesn't add up to much more than that, despite what seem like, at times, pretensions to do so.

[Ugh · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book's blurb intrigued me quite a bit, and the reviews quoted on the cover were very promising. However, I certainly wasn't expecting to be committing myself to 400+ pages in the company of a moron, and that's essentially what you're doing when you read this. I'm being a little harsh, as the narrator isn't all that dumb, and he's well-meaning and even quite endearing, but don't expect great prose or anything in the way of insight or revelation or complexity of character. I thought the novel would be part gaming guide but mostly the "real life" story of a sort-of drop-out but maybe quirky and street-smart dude, but in fact it's mostly guide, and your dude isn't in any way smart, street- or otherwise. Etchells does do a good job of the guide aspects, but quite why you'd want to read 400-odd pages of "go here, go there, kill this guy, take that item" is beyond me (I was expecting something more when I bought the book, remember), even if the narrator's voice is remarkably consistent and even if some of the elements of the fictional game are quite amusing or inventive. Having said that, I have to admit that I did find the novel quite addictive, although when I was actually reading it my exasperation generally forced me to put it down again after just a few chapters. Plus there's something quite tiring about reading a load of random, ping-ponging pointlessness. A quote on the cover of a review by Rupert Thomson, some of whose work I really like, kept me reading on in the hope of some sort of change of gear, but unfortunately it never came, and although on a very few occasions the novel almost attained a glimmer of poignancy or relevance, my advice to you would be not to bother setting out on this particular quest...

Nevertheless, I do want to add a favourite quote, which I should stress is just a random, almost throwaway line that comes right at the end from a minor character: "How does one reconcile the need for privacy with the need for human warmth?"

[Sammi · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Broken World has definately made it into my favorite book shelf.
The story is a true geeky/gamers type story.
It follows the life a guy writing a walkthrough for a game known as 'The Broken World'. The game in itself is full of complexities and an amazing story in itself, and does (if I may say) sound like a pretty immense gaming experience, that I would definately play, haha.
The authors of the walkthrough uses it as a kind of online journal as well as a gamer guide, and this is how you get to know him and the things he is encountering in his life outside of the game. The game and the authors life have similar issues in some part and they gel together really well.
I would definately reccommend this is if you have a bit of a geeky gamer side.

[Sammie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The basic premise of this book is that the main character is writing a walkthrough for a role playing game. I read the first two chapters of this book before I realised that the whole thing was the walkthrough. I was expecting excerpts from the walkthrough mixed in with regular narrative. I almost stopped reading at that point. But the few hints at real-life creeping into his walkthrough kept me intrigued. It turned out to be a really good read.

It was an interesting idea that could have totally flopped, but for me it hit the mark. Interesting characters, from a unique view point. Well worth reading, even if you have no interest in computer games.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for a Popdose review, and enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would -- I don't normally have much patience for explorations of online worlds, which is what this seemed like on the surface. It's more than that, though -- despite its flaws (and it has some serious ones), "The Broken World" is oddly, deeply engrossing. If not for my disappointment in the way Etchells ended the book, this would be a four-star title.

[sisterimapoet · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was as odd as I expected it to be, but then it was also very accessible, very enjoyable, and not in the least bit too weird to enjoy. Having some familiarity with game walkthroughs it made me smile. But it also made me think, about how we all need a walkthrough to life at times. And how perhaps the typical 'gamers' that the world pokes fun at might actually have quite a bit of wisdom to share if we're willing to listen.

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written from the POV of a young male gamer, this is a walkthrough of his favourite computer game. In fact it's more than just a game to him, it's a key part of his life. Some think he is too immersed in it, but he knows he just has to get the walkthrough finished. He wants to help. Flipping Between the broken world and the real world, we share in the cumulative reality which grows from his spending similar amounts of time in both. How valid is his reality, and how valid is that of others?

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audacious and brilliant exploration of action/adventure gaming obsession, combined with an examination of the male psyche as it struggles with love, identity, value and work. The passages describing the fictitious game are a beautiful blend of homage and pastiche.

[Kadry · Rating 3 out of 5]

An offbeat narrator is the reader’s tour guide to a complex video game that mirrors the narrator’s offline life. A strangely compelling picture of a vividly described game world. Etchells creates characters you care about, real and virtual.

[Brendan · Rating 4 out of 5]

v inventive .