Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

No matter what you do. As long the heart is beating, there's a chance to make a difference.

A beautiful book, I only regret I didn't get around to reading it earlier. To my pleasant surprise, it wasn't really about gaming or game design, though the characters do both. It was about people and relationships and life and it made me think and feel, and that makes for a darn good book.

I feel like I'm not being totally fair to the book, because I started judging it based on its reputation and hype versus its own merits. On its own, it's a spirited attempt to present a complex interpersonal relationship amidst the backdrop of an industry that is more and more relevant to the average reader with the passing of the years. Ultimately, I was really hoping for more integration of these digital worlds that Zevin envisioned, Mapleworld and Pioneers. The characters themselves....were tough for me to stick with. Sam ranges from really nasty to awkwardly solipsistic in his attempts to reach out to his best friends. Sadie is ready to stop all forward progress in character development at the first sign of Zevin setting her up for trauma. Basically, I thought this book would evolve us past the need for books like Neuromancer, but we're still waiting for that day.

A wonderfully written story about the adult years of growing up, on a backdrop of the intense creative processes of video game design. I want these games to be real. I want to feel the characters expression through their art.

There are books where it’s a novel situation played out through understandable and straightforward characters. And then there are books where you have no idea how someone can keep so many deep actors in their head, you wonder if they were real people. Each character with their own motivations, and perspective. Sometimes I cheered for them. Sometimes I hated them. Always I loved them.

In any case, it’s a beautiful story. Heartbreaking and tragic.

I liked this. I might not play enough games to fully appreciate it? But I was very into the complicated friendship and the emphasis on the rarity of that connection.

There is a beginning and a middle. The end it's up to you.

This is a very good book about relationships of all kinds - familial, romantic, friendly - and the relationships that are harder to define in a single word. Sure, it's also about video game design, narrative structure, being empathetic and kind, and a little love letter to Southern California. It feels like the 1990s, and also timeless. Zevin writes wonderfully about gender, race, age, and all the ups and downs of those definitions across generations.

Very highly recommended, for people who like people.

I loved a lot of this: the deep character building; the reality-details; and the odd topic of early game development. I found at the end, though, that I didn't love it as much as I had while I'd been reading. I grew to dislike Sadie pretty strongly, and felt like her character didn't get as much development as the men, and therefore her choices and behaviors felt abrupt and awful. I'm annoyed that the one woman in the book wasn't treated as carefully and fully as the other two--it really spoiled the whole barrel for me. Having said that, the story and the writing are pretty amazing in how they pull you in and don't let go.

I didn't feel like there was any clear plot driving this story. I didn't like any of the characters, except Marx. In fact, Sam and Sadie are at each other's throats for the majority of the story. Both holding grudges against perceived slights that have been blown way out of proportion and exacerbated by refusing to talk through their issues. I dislike stories where the main conflict is caused by miscommunication.
I enjoyed the discussion of game design and I would love a chance to play Pioneers!

I picked this book up after seeing it on the "best" list from the Washington Post, and was not disappointed. I am not a gamer. But this isn't really a book about video games -- it is about the fascinating friendship which grows among the main characters. To reveal too much about how these friendships evolve would inevitably give up the

The characters in the book are roughly the same age as me, and there is a lot in this book that will speak to kids of the 80s and 90s. I was practically offended when, on page 99, the Zevin writes that Chris Cornell was "the lead singer of the grunge band Soundgarden." Who else would it be?! Kidding aside, I never felt like this book dragged, and watching the evolution of the friendship felt true. A great read.

Wow, what an unexpected gem. I saw this book on a bunch of best-read lists for 2022, and I was drawn in by the description. I thought I'd be reading a fictionalized version of the history of building video games, like Console Wars, but I got this beautiful book about friendship instead. The closest comparison I can make is The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon. Regardless, this book deserves all the accolades it has been receiving.

A lot to like but it didn’t live up to the hype for me.