I actually have had this one on my list to read for a couple of years since my daughter read it in English for grade 10. This fall I decided it was time to open it. Besides I wanted a novel to read for a bit of lighter time.
I had no real idea what to expect. All I knew about the book was what I had read on the "jacket". Well that and a brief bit (like less than a minute) of the movie I saw while flipping through channels one night.
IT was an odd story. Basically a quest story set in a dystopian future. Not what I would call a great classic in the making. The end result is somewhat predictable but there are a few surprises along the way. The thematic piece about the tension between living a virtual life and living in the real world could be explored in more detail. There is also a nice theme around economic/social justice that gets played out.
Possibly the thing that made the book the most interesting for me was all the 1980's references. I was never as much of a video gamer or a Dungeons & Dragons player as the character in the book is but the references were fun to track.
In the end it is not a bad read. Kind of fun really. Just not really what I would call high literature.
