Press start to play

by John Joseph Adams, Daniel H. Wilson

507 pages

English language

Published Sept. 5, 2015

ISBN:: 978-1-101-87330-4
OCLC Number:: 898228368

A groundbreaking anthology of short stories from award-winning writers and game-industry titans who have embarked on a quest to explore what happens when video games and science fiction collide. From text-based adventures to first-person shooters, dungeon crawlers to horror games, these twenty-six stories play with our notion of what video games can be-and what they can become-in smart and singular ways.

1 edition

Martin reviewed Press start to play by John Joseph Adams

None

4 stars

Crazy that I took basically a year to finish this book. I read the last three or four stories in the last 24 hours, thinking I was close enough to the end that I just needed to finish it. That included the Andy Weir story which was very short, and silly but fun, as well as the conclusion to the book by Hugh Howe’s (author of Wool, which I’ve heard a lot about but haven’t yet read), which I found surprisingly poignant and compelling.

Overall, most of these stories featured games prominently, and a few of them featured game developers. Some were better than others, but overall I’m glad I read this.

teo reviewed Press start to play by John Joseph Adams

Review of 'Press start to play' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Very mixed bag. I had hoped to be inspired to play games just like NGJ had done back when it was a thing but, alas, it did not.

Dragna reviewed Press start to play by John Joseph Adams

Review of 'Press start to play' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Some of the stories are really hit or miss, as with any anthology, but boy are the hits good. From incredibly unique takes on traditional game mechanics like NPC, to very important stories like Stats, that really need to be told, this anthology really had me pouring through the pages. It's a little front heavy, and the last 4th of the book is noticeably weaker than the stories at the start, but still worth a read through. This definitely gave me value for money in a sub-genre I hope to see expanding in the near future.