High quality and offensive
There are plenty of warnings about this book, but it's impossible to review this chapter without reiterating them here. Short of being child pornography, this is as offensive and tasteless as fiction can possibly be. Yet somehow the depth of Dinniman's storytelling, the richness of his characters and the intricate RPG mechanics... the finesse, the passion and musicianship of Jeff Hays and Soundbooth Theater all shine here. They shine as brightly as they do in all his other books. I think the genre is shallow: Pain for the anticipation of more pain, torture for the thrill of torture, fear for the excitement of fear itself, and I find it quite offensive. I hate it. Yet somehow I love this book. It's qutie the paradox. Is there a shallowness to my enjoyment? I don't know. Proabably. In my heart, I think perhaps it's shallow, yet deep and beautiful anyway. He takes two genres: LitRPG and Horror, delves hardcore into both of them as intensely as he can, and then uses that as the backdrop to tell a masterful fable of haunting beautiful majesty. Am I an evil person? What is good and what is evil? What is a game, and what is real? Where do you draw the line? Are we in a simulation? It's food for thought, sick, rotten food for thought. If you think you'd like to twist the line between good taste and bad into the shape of an RPG character chart, then is the book for you.