There is something about Mogworld

Hello everyone, for those who have not seen it yet, I will link you to the book club where I talked about the latest novel from Yahzee Crowshaw, Mogworld.



So after this review post posted to the masses, one can say I received a lot of hate mail. I know I was going to be in the minority when it came to this book. There are certain things that really rubbed me the wrong way with it and instead of sending dozens of messages to people about it, I will lump them here for your enjoyment.

1) They never went to the real world only to a cyber vision of the real world since the admin tools were there.

Well to be honest this was something I got wrong, however the reason I got this wrong was in part due to the author. Throughout the entire book when it came to locations and setting up areas for the characters to explore, describing the atmosphere was nothing more then an after thought.

Case in point when they went and talked to the king it was described a Salvador Dali castle. How much time were they there for? Maybe a half of a chapter before being sent to a dungeon of the castle which one would assume is the same, but was never specified. He goes from one action scene to another action scene with only a passing mention on the environment.

So yes they were actually in an office like cyber environment where the admin tools were and yes the programmers disappeared when they "logged out" however it was so awkwardly worded you could imagine why I would be confused.

2) Why did you think this was a fantasy book when it was supposed to be a sci-fi one from the start?

Again, when I go and pick up books I tend to not read the back covers nor the amazon description which SPOILED PART OF THE BOOK. I knew that it takes place in an MMO environment, but to have it LITERALLY in an MMO was something I did not see coming. Once that hits you so abruptly it makes everything that was built up including the motivation of the NPC moot and then makes further actions a confusing mess since we already know the twist of the book about a quarter of the way into the book. Plus I checked again the genre it is listed under is indeed a graphic novel, when there is no graphics in this novel.

3) You are so stupid the characters were SUPPOSED to be assholes.

Really? You are going to say that since I do not care for people who were willing to not bond with each other to the point that they would often get on their nerves that makes them good characters? I am sorry they are assholes, and characters that I clearly would not give a shit about and get pissed when character motivation change on the drop of a hat negating EVERY action they did prior.

4) You suck for not liking the book

That's fine, I am not saying that the book is terrible all I said was that after the first act it took such a nose dive to bad that I was pissed off that he could not keep the same level of writing through the entire story. Plus I do not like books that others do, I am a reader of many books you can enjoy it, I just didn't.

5) Yahzee was a competent writer you asshole

Ok I see where your frustration is at meaning I think he did bad overall. My competent argument was referring to having a story start in one tone and end it in another. It was like if he gave up on character development, conflict resolution, and well plot elements went from really well done to very lazily hasted. In a word it was the disappointment factor, to simply downgrade your writing the further you went in a book is something which I can not call competent, it is more lazy then anything else.

6) Yahzee is the shit how dare you say bad things about him

This is where my famous writer line was supposed to save me, when I read a book I take no consideration on who actually wrote the book. Sure a famous celebrity may have written it but the name on the cover does not a good book make (see Steven King). I hold the merit of the book based upon the story in which it presents to me, not on the writer personally. You can have someone that has written bad books suddenly turn out an awesome story, again it is the do not judge a book by its cover principle.

As for my views of Yahzee; I think he is ok. Not my cup of tea, but can understand the appeal of watching his reviews. Something things turn me off about him like the constant use of dick jokes and the mentioning of Peter Molyneux (seriously he is a used car salesman the less you listen to him the better you will actually see the faults of the used car). I do know people that have met the guy and they told me he is a cool dude. I was not attacking the person, I was attacking the writing.

7) Why did you spoil the book I didn't read it yet

Have you ever seen a prior episode? Heck have you ever been to a book club before? Yes it assumes that you have read the entire book and already know the ending of it. Plus it took me over an hour to spoil the ending, and I placed 2 spoiler warnings (and midrolls) to warn you about this.

8) Sadpanda is going to htee you forever now

He may htae me, but I will still loe him.

9) Why so seriously critical when you go and read a book?

Why do people point out inconstancies in the background of a movie when it does not effect the overall scene? Critics need to be nit picky, some do it better then others.

I hope that answers most of your questions please feel free to post a comment if you feel there is something I left out. Take care.

WRA Episode 18- Orphans of Chaos (part 1)

Warning! Readers Advisory! returns once again, giving you the first episode of a two parter. John C. Wright's Orphans of Chaos is a morass of fetishism and bugfuck diatribes on the nature of reality. So crazy, it took two parts!

Enjoy.