88 Names audiobook

Neither the name nor the plot description interested me, but I can always trust Matt Ruff to tell a good story. I've read all of his novels. They are all different, and they are all very entertaining. (Though this one is a little bit like Bad Monkeys.)Much of the story takes place inside virtual reality video games. Since the laws of physics, and other laws, can be violated in such settings that sort of story can become confusing. It is also a story of espionage and counter-espionage, which can also become confusing. But I was never lost or very confused. Well done!

Matt Ruff is an author I will always read. He's not prolific, and he doesn't have a formula. He's a great writer, funny and has lots of topics to tackle. I like that about him - you never know what you'll get. This book was about video games - simplistically - on a deeper level it was about society, gender, race, technology, identity and cyber-life. All those topics tackled in what feels like a love letter to video games, specifically "Massive Multi-Player Online Role-Playing Games" MMORPG's. It's no surprise that Ruff has been involved in gaming for many years, though I'm not sure if he'd call himself a gamer. It was hard to tell from the authors note. Not being a gamer myself I don't know if all the game play he described was made up or derivative, but whatever it was, it was fun! This is not another version of Ready Player One, though there are obviously aspects. It's more like a suspense/thriller set in video games. I completely enjoyed it and had a hard time putting it down.

John Chu works as a Sherpa (guide for newbies who can afford to pay) in virtual reality computer games, with a tight crew who work for him. It's against the rules in some of the games, but the risk is part of the job. He gets in over his head in what appears to be international espionage bleeding over into games. Luckily, he has a badass family to help.I loved reading this book, as expected with any Matt Ruff book. It pulled me right in, and I read it in one day. It would be five stars, but the ending was a bit of a letdown. It was also a bit of a letdown for John Chu, so it may be that the ending, letdown and all, was part of the charm of the book. Still, it brought it down by one star for me.

QUICK TAKE: perfect for those of you who loved READY PLAYER ONE...very similar world-building, with a dark streak running through the narrative. The ending was a little convoluted, but overall I thoroughly enjoyed 88 NAMES.

fun gamer book

I have yet to read a Ruff book that I did not enjoy or love. This is my third book from him, and one thing that I have always enjoyed about Ruff is that not only are his stories mixed in with elements of fiction and reality, but that there are so many layers to his stories that make them challenging and relevant, no matter when you read them. The other addition is that even as someone who presents as a cishet white male, Ruff is able to write about different identities and expressions in his characters, and not make it appear to be stereotypes or allegorical in his execution, and that proves again, that not only can white male authors continue this trend, but that it does take some gift as a writer to be able to execute it well. The novel unfolds in a future America where VR games are the range, and sherpas exist for games that are modeled after current MMRPGOs (I know butchered that acronym) for clients that want to win and experience the benefits of the game without putting the time and effort into it (think Ready Player One but with more a real world implication). Until one day, when John gets a client whom he starts to supsect is North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, gets drawn into a labryinth of deals that have him in the sights of the US, Chinese and North Korean governments - along with gamers who think that he needs to be brought down. 88 Names is a fascinating exploration of the change in humanity and culture that games are having on our society, and also touches upon the relationships that can be developed virtually even when you don't know that much information about someone. Plus, it helps that Ruff is able to inject moments of levity and introspection throughout the narrative.

This was great escapism for someone who is not a gamer but lives with several of them and has geeky tendencies. So while I can't tell if all of the gaming stuff was accurate it was a fun story.

John Chu works as an online sherpa, guiding gaming newbies through virtual reality adventure games. After a series of jobs gone wrong that might be the fault of a disgruntled ex-employee/girlfriend, John is approached by an anonymous wealthy client offering an outrageous sum, and making a set of outrageous demands. This is immediately followed by an even larger offer from another mysterious figure who wants John to take the first job but report everything that happens. When it starts to look like the first client might be someone high up in the North Korean government, things get even weirder.Ruff has long been one of my favorite authors for the originality of his stories, the amount of thought he clearly puts into his worlds, and the moments of humor threaded through everything he writes. All these traits are visible in this novel, which dissects topics like racist RPG tropes and online gender dynamics while sending the characters on a fun and often funny adventure with unexpected twists. I enjoyed all the ideas the story explores, and the fast-paced plot kept me engrossed during a very distracting time.

Oh, yes. This is 2020’s Ready Player One, without a doubt. I regularly give books 5 stars, but this one is going into that exclusive pile that I pick up to reread time and time again.I laughed aloud at regular intervals. Chu is almost as much of a badass as John Lago, and even if he’s a little more jaded than Wade Watts with a harder edge and more filial piety, he also has a butt-ton of US military support to call in when he needs to.The multitudinous use of game genres was most excellent, the callouts and backreferencing tremendous (“Ensign Kim” and the INEXHAUSTIBLE PRICKLY HORSE got me); the big reveal foreshadowed but still very, very good fun, and most of all, the thing that I found most rousing was the fact that the lines between VR and RL blurred exquisitely, the action in each felt as real as the other, and that was fantastic. Cline did it well too, and it works to perhaps even a higher standard here. An unequivocal thumbs up from me. I was hooked on this one and swallowed it in but a few short hours.

There are books that you read that you love so much that you start looking for it again in other books to chase that high. Tad William's Otherland series is one of those for me. I found it again in Ernest Cline's Ready Player One and now this one.A guy running a Sherpa business for a fully immersive vr "World of Warcraft" gets hired to be a tour guide in all the leading mmorpgs by a seemingly powerful Korean leader. Full of humor and cyber slang, references to some of my favorite shows and video games, I give this ALL the stars. I found out about this author watching previews for Hbo's 2020 new shows and heard about Lovecraft Country and read it. This author is truly amazing. Thank you Edelweiss for the ARC

This satisfied my Sci Fi fix! Exciting without being too action-packed. From a male perspective but the narrator is self-aware enough to not be annoying. This is my first Matt Ruff novel and I'm excited to read more.

If you are somehow interested in VR (as I definitely am) and if you have a knack for stories which have a heavy context on the current pop-culture (as I do) then this is a fun read. I really enjoyed it...only 4 stars because it seemed rather short... :)

Fun, and quick. I want to compare it to Ready Player One, but only because it's also about gaming. It's better, imo. It's scifi, but mostly elides the details about technology (aside from, like, the mmorpg that's the main focus) so you don't have to be a huge tech nerd to understand. I liked it.

Not his best, but entertaining. I thought that Bad Monkeys was a better exploration of sociopathia.