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WORLD LEADER PRETEND WORLD
LEADER PRETEND brings a narrative about a Massively Multiplayer
Online Game to life by creating a crowd of charmingly confused
characters connected by conflicts in in a cyberdomain called The
Realm. In The Realm they are kings and lords vying for territory
and treasure, in real life they are variously a quadraplegic, a failed
dot com executive with a schizophrenic sister, a Thai orphan headed for
the whorehouse, an Antartic newlywed and a sex-addicted Goth
chick. Through their technologically mediated meetings they
resolve their various real-life problems, but only because they
recognize that behind their screen names their enemies and allies are
actual people.
The prose displays a finely tuned ear, and balances its snark and occasional imaginative excesses with compassion for the characters. Altogether a fine book by an author who seems to be engaged in a transmutation the High Latin of the postmodern novel into a mainstream vernacular. --C. B. Coble |