The Bookwyrm's Review of Soda Pop Soldier by Nick Cole
Author: Nick Cole
Length: 367 Pages/ 12 Hours, 27
Minutes (Audio)
Publisher: Nick Cole/ Podium
Publishing (Audio)
Release Date: January 14, 2019/
November 6, 2018 (Audio)
Narrator: Guy Williams
Series: Soda Pop Soldier, Book 1
Genre: GameLit/Cyberpunk
I was a big fan of Nick Cole from
his previous work on books like The Red King, but it wasn't until the
kerfuffle about this book's predecessor, CTRL-ALT Revolt!, that I
became aware of this book. A shame, really, because I missed out on
some damn fine writing until now.
Set in the same universe as Revolt,
just years later, we meet the protagonist, PerfectQuestion,
professional gamer for ColaCorp, doing battle in WarWorld, the
biggest MMO in the world, as ColaCorp's online soldiers battle
WonderSoft's virtual troopers in a winner takes all battle for prime
advertising space in New York, all in a game that has similarities to
the Vietnam war and the setting for the movie Aliens. Unfortunately
for PerfectQuestion, ColaCorp has suffered one defeat after another
lately, being rolled back from previous gains and facing imminent
defeat. In the dystopian corporate controlled world he lives in,
losing his job will mean hard times, since jobs are hard to come by,
and he'll be tainted by failure.
With his career possibly about to
come crashing down, his personal life in shambles as his girlfriend
is acting as though she is about to leave, and his game play bonuses
leaving him well short of the rent, PerfectQuestion takes the rent
money and bets big on himself, buying into an illegal fantasy MMO
which can lead to big money and expensive prizes. It could also lead
to jail if he is caught. Booting the game up, he finds himself
playing a one handed samurai on a quest to find his sword. He begins
to suspect something is up with the game, as outside forces put a hit
on his character, and forces in real life turn his life into a deadly
game of cat and mouse. He has to remain alive in game and in the real
world, all while trying to come up with a way to keep ColaCorp from
crashing and burning, leaving him nowhere to go. This leads to the
breakneck finale, which will leave the reader breathless with
anticipation all the way to the end, which has a satisfying, completely action packed conclusion.
Being one of the early entries into
the GameLit genre, with a smothering of Cyberpunk, Soda Pop Soldier
avoids a lot of the pitfalls that more recent additions to the genre
suffer from. There are absolutely no harem elements to scare away
female readers, and the main character, PerfectQuestion, is not a
stat obsessed ubernerd living in mom's basement, but a guy who treats
the game like what it is, his job. The secondary characters, almost
all of whom are seen just in the various games, are surprisingly
fleshed out, and some interesting backstory elements come out as
well. The villain is a bit generic in motivations, but is cleverly
integrated into the story, and he has an interesting resolution in
the story. The world building, both in game and IRL is top notch, and
the reader really gets a feel for being in the thick of the action.
The game play elements are also fairly unique in today's
overabundance of virtual reality interfaces in GameLit, instead going
old school gaming and using keyboard and mouse. You still feel fully
immersed in the game world, which is a testimony to the writing skill
of the author. The military action all has a genuine feel to it, and
I suspect the authors military background came into play in keeping
the feel real to life. All in all, I would definitely rate this in my
top 5 GameLit/LitRPG titles, and recommend it without reservation.
Guy Williams, who's work I was
familiar with from several other titles, does a fantastic job
bringing this world to life. He uses a variety of tones, accents and
pacing to give each character a life of their own. His narrative
pacing is solid as well, never getting either monotonous or speed
reading. If you are a fan of audio books, this is definitely a
version I can recommend heartily.
Rating: 5/5
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