Austin Grossman (twin brother to The Magicians author Lev Grossman) might not have the critical acclaim that his brother does, but his novels are interesting and, in many ways, better than his brother. His first novel, Soon I Will Be Invincible(my review), was a wonderful story of a supervillian. For his new book, the confusingly titled You, Grossman takes us behind the scenes in the history of a video game company. Let’s check out what it’s about.
Russell is having a homecoming, of sorts. Growing up he hung out with the crew who founded the video game company Black Arts, before he left to get an English degree and move away from his video game background. But, without much other choice in jobs, he’s signing on to the team again. Darren, the charismatic leader is still running the company, with Lisa, the smart and silent one, running the technology. The genius, Simon, died soon after the company started, but his core engine (known as WAFFLE) still powers all of Black Arts games and is the core of the mystery in the novel.
After a British company acquires Black Arts, they are put on a deadline for their new game, Darren, along with several top people, leave to start a new company. Lisa and Russell are left to lead the new game, but there is a problem lurking. Simon had left an Easter Egg in the WAFFLE engine. An unbeatable sword that is starting to appear and cause havoc throughout the game history. Russell must go back and play all the Black Arts games, not only to work on the story for the new game, but to find the sword and banish it from game play before it destroys the game and the company.
The book goes back and forth in time. We see our heroes learning to code and their first tournament at a summer coding camp. And then we see the current time with the struggles to get a new game off the ground. Russell is our view into this world as an insider and outsider at the same time. He was with the group when everything started, so he has background, but his time away has given him an outsider status. So this makes Russell perfect for the reader’s view into this group of people. We see what a dysfunctional group of people it is and I would have loved to see more of this. I thought too much of the book was spent going through past games and it wasn’t done in that interesting of a manner. I would have much preferred to spend more time with Lisa or Darren or even Simon (before he died). I understand that Grossman wanted to keep Simon as a mysterious figure that no one really knew, but the book would have been stronger with more time spent among our four main characters. Grossman’s experience as a video game designed did help a lot. The parts of the book where the characters were working on a game (past or present) were the strongest part of the book. Recommended for the strong setting and writing.