Game Night

If you have ever been a gamer; if you ever sat through late night D & D games, you will relate to the characters in this book and laugh throughout the entire thing. Hilarious!

... or just maybe that was a nitemare. ;-) Anyway, this book is hilarious. Each "character" is a deity of sorts, who is running a stereotypical gamer archetype. If you have played in many games, you'll recognize every one of these, and be able to set your own name or experiences to that PC-archetype. And then there's the DM- constantly annoyed by the cluelessness of his players, but not without faults of his own. You'll know him too. Or maybe you'll see yourself in one of them..... As has been said, it's a little Terry Pratchett-like, but it comes to a rather unsatisfactory end. Still, if you are a RPGer- or even just hang out with RPGers- read this book.

Long and short - very enjoyable. Five friends have read it, five friends have liked it. The thing I like best is that his writing is lean; there is no fat, only entertainment. Too often do I run across useless words/scenes. He knows what the book is, he knows what the story is, and he sticks with it. The archetypes presented are not revolutionary by any stretch, but what is unique is how Nexus pulls it all together. His take on these standards is what sets this apart. You won't be disappointed.

Going into this, I had already read some of Critical Miss. While it does not help understand what is going on, it is a wonderful way to tell if you would like this author or not. Now to brass tacks: I loved this book. Believe it or not, I actually come off as The Jester when I roleplay, always making wisecracks and never really taking the game seriously. The characters were easy to identify with (well, minus The Lady, as the GM's girlfriend/boyfriend is usually a bigger danger and annoyance than the GM) and the plot moved along quickly, with four idiots, one girl, and a belaguered GM. I would say Discworld would be a close comparison to this-- Early Discworld, not the later stuff about the Night Watch. And now for the bad part-- the ending was not even okay. I did not enjoy it, and was left with a kind of "*shrug* well, that's it, I suppose" feeling. But, if you can get past that, this really is a joy to read.

The novel is a very amusing parody of pen and paper roleplaying games. The characters are a variety of (slightly exagerated) player types, and many of the situations in the novel will make you laugh out loud if you ever played a roleplaying game such as D & D - and remind you of a similar scene you experienced.