The Red Queen's Gambit
David Sherwood
Genre: SciFi
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In The Red Queen's Gamble, Mr. Sherwood has created an intriguing story that mixes elements of Fantasy, Science Fiction and the culture of internet gaming into a pleasant mélange. While at times it slowed down, overall the story held my attention. The strange and chaotic world that the author presents is well crafted and fresh.
The culture of the gaming community, and the people that populate it are extraordinarily well conceived and developed. Having played online games for a long time I was pleased at how accurately some of the aspects of it reflected my own experiences. From the set of gamers obsessed with attractive avatars to the ones that seem to revel in pushing the limits of strange, I felt like I'd met some of these people in my time online.
The main character was believable and sympathetic but I really wanted more of her. In the middle of the story she more or less disappears for a while. That was also the chunk of the book that didn't consume my attention.
In some places it felt like the author was trying to juggle too many storylines and too many characters. A lot of these sub plots and the character relationships weren't followed up as far as I'd have liked but honestly I can't think of a way to do it and still have the book remain focused and well directed.
Despite any perceived flaws I found that I enjoyed this book and am glad I read it.
If you enjoy books like those of Robert Bevan (who writes highly original and amusing stories based around a group of people trapped in a Dungeons & Dragons game) and Ernest Cline (Ready Player One), you might find this a solid read. As such I'm giving it 4 stars
(disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for review purposes.)
